By Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung, Musikinstrumenten-Museum / Jürgen Liepe, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=132787243
Prelude BWV 846/1 J.S. Bach Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1
This prelude is based on ‘his fondness for placing a graceful and ingenious superstructure on a carefully selected series of chords’ according to Frederick Iliffe’s Analysis of 48 Prelude and Fugues published by Novello.
In the introduction to this piece in Siglind Bruhn’s “J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier In Depth Analysis and Interpretation” she opens by saying that this prelude is nothing but broken chords. She states that these chords will be how harmonic tension is increased or decreased. In her opinion it is not advisable to create an echo with every second chord or to emphasise the top note of every chord. She states that ‘phrasing between structural sections should be made transparent by varying degrees of tension’. In one section of her book she asks the question ‘How do you deal with preludes determined mainly by harmonic processes?’ She states that one must consider the tension created by the individual chords and how the chords relate dynamically to the following chords. The rules are ‘the tension increases with every active step, i.e. with every step moving away from the relevant tonic. And, the tension decreases with every passive step, i.e. with every step moving towards a resolution’. She carries on by saying ‘in the simple harmonic progression with the perfect cadence, the subdominant (or its substitute) as the active step represents the highest harmonic tension; the dominant chords with its clearly defined tendency to resolve follows with less tension, and the tonic is most relaxed. This natural design is enhanced whenever a function appears as a seventh or a ninth chord. Last but not least, the degree by which the harmonic tension (and with it the dynamic level which depicts this tension) increases related to the “audacity” of the harmonic step’.
In Paul Badura-Skoda’s book published by Oxford University Press in 1993, paperback in 1995 “Interpreting Bach at the Keyboard” he states the following. ‘In pieces with arpeggiated triads for example, the sound of a good early harpsichord was very similar to that of a modern piano when the pianist makes a discreet use of the pedal. The pedal is the ‘stop’ peculiar to the modern piano, and with its help magical sounds can be evoked. It is the piano’s only substitute for the harpsichord’s many stops. It would be also just as wrong to try to ‘play the harpsichord’ on the modern piano as it is, conversely, to ‘play the piano’ on the harpsichord (this can sound terrible). A pianist who eschews the pedal is like a violinist who does not use vibrato, for on the piano a note played with pedal creates a vibrato effect’.
By Unknown author - https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1344710, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117473043
Michael Cole. "A Handel harpsichord" (PDF). Early Music (February 1993).
"illus.1 Single-manual harpsichord by William Smith (Bate Collection, University of Oxford) ",
"Before it arrived at the Bate Collection, all that was known about the William Smith harpsichord (illus.1) was to be found in a brief summary in Boalch's makers of the harpsichord and clavichord. It was said to have two sets of strings only at 8' pitch, and, on the evidence of its appearance, it was to be dated to the first quarter of the 18th century. ... ",
"A small illustration of its front view had appeared in the second edition of Boalch among a selection of plates chosen to illustrate signature and inscriptions--in this instance 'Gulielmus Smith Londini fecit' written in ink directly on the frontboard. ",
"Delight enough to be sure, but the pleasure was greatly amplified when it was recognized, almost immediately, that the harpsichord bore an uncommon resemblance to the instrument shown in the famous Mercier portrait of Handel (see cover). Bringing a copy of this picture to the instrument for comparison only served to show how right these first impression were (illus.2): there were the same keys, the characteristically carved end-blocks, the lockboard batten and the nicely rounded crown on the spine adjacent, the colour of the veneer, the same stop knob in the same place--and leaning against this harpsichord the most revered of all 'English' composers, Handel himself! "
In the book “The Baroque Piano The Influence of Society, Style And Musical Trends Of The Great Piano Composers” published by Alfred, it is written that the ‘harpsichord was the most widely used stringed instrument in the Baroque period. It had one of two keyboards, about five octaves in length, each with three of four sets of strings, which varied in pitch and tone quality. It had hand stops or levers to combine sets of strings or keyboards and vary tone. The harpsichord found most frequently in homes was smaller and was known as a spinet or virginal. It sounded when strings were plucked by small quills on a jack (plectra), so true crescendo or diminuendo was impossible’.
In “Pianos and their Makers A Comprehensive History of the Development of the Piano” by Alfred Dolge published by Dover states that ‘the early harpsichord was basically an enlarged spinet. The larger case, greater soundboard and greater number of much longer strings of the harpsichord opened a new field for inventive genius. While the tone produced on the longer string had greater volume and was louder than the spinet, it was at the same time harsher, raw, more nasal and often offensive to the ear. To overcome, or at least mollify this harshness, many experiments were done. Of all of these experiments, four proved to be of permanent value. The “forte stop”” which lifted the dampers; the “soft stop” which pressed the dampers on to the strings to stop the vibration, the “buff stop” interposing soft cloth or leather between the jacks and the strings, and lastly the “shifting stop” which shifted the entire keyboard, a movement later applied to the transposing keyboard. In the effort to produce greater volume of tone the makers continued to increase the size of the harpsichord until it had reached the extreme length of 16 feet. Very think wire had to be used for the strings, since the frail cases would not stand the increased tension of heavier wires, nor could the flimsy quill plectra make the heavy wires vibrate well. The longer the string of thin wire, the less musical was the tine produced by the twanging, and the best makers returned to the length of 8 to 10 feet, seeking to improve the tone quality and volume by increasing the number of strings from one to two, three or even, four for each note. About the middle of the 17C, harpsichords with two keyboards and three strings for each note were built. The third string, usually hitched to the soundboard bridge, was thinner and shorter than the two main strings and tuned an octave higher than the main strings. With the two keyboards the player could use the two or three strings of each note separately or together. Because of these improvements, especially the forte piano pedals, and greater tone, musicians preferred the harpsichord to the spinet. Towards the end of the 18C, when the pianoforte began to take the place of harpsichords, attempts were made to improve the tone quality of the harpsichord by using buff leather at the points of the jack, instead of quills, but evidently without success. The fact that the harpsichord, like the spinet, gave the player no possible opportunity to exercise any artistry, as on the clavichord or the pianoforte, sealed the doom of the instrument, and with the end of the 18C the end of the harpsichord had come, leaving for the pianoforte maker, however the valuable inventions of the wing-formed case, the use of two and three strings for one note, and lastly the forte piano pedal and the shifting keyboard, all of which are embodied in the present-day piano’.
By Tom Ó Drisceoil - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90595368
Photo showing the soundboard rose of a double manual harpsichord made by Antoine Vater in 1738.
The following is from Han Ding, see reference below ‘Harpsichords can either come in single or double manual form, referring to the number of keyboards. Whereas the early Flemish double manual harpsichords had the two keyboards staggered in pitch in order to facilitate transposition, later models almost always were either built (rebuilt) to have the two keyboards aligned. The player also has the choice of "coupling" the keyboards, which means either playing them separately, or controlling both keyboards simultaneously from the bottom manual.
When a key is depressed on the harpsichord, one or more jacks are activated. This is because, depending on the build and complexity of the instrument in question, pressing a key can either pluck one, two, three, or more strings. Each set of strings, known as a "choir", has a pitch designation. The standard is the 8-foot string (following an organ nomenclature): press middle C and hear middle C. All harpsichords have at least one 8-foot choir; double manuals, naturally, have two (known as 8' 8' disposition). Many instruments will also have a 4-foot choir: press middle C and hear the C above. When using the 4-foot in combination with one or more 8-foot choirs, you get a bigger, fuller sound (ie. 8' 8' 4').
Stops are another feature the harpsichord shares with the pipe organ. Typically, stops simply control which choirs are to be heard. By switching a 4-foot stop lever, for instance, you allow the choir to sound to prevent it from doing so. Many instruments will also feature a "buff rail" or "buff stop", which presses a set of felts or soft leather mutes to the strings and creates a lute-like sound. For this reason, the buff stop is often incorrectly referred to as the "lute stop"; in reality, the lute stop is actually an entirely different row of jacks that produce a different timbre by using one of the existing 8-foot stops. Custom harpsichords can have any combination of these choirs and stops and more.
In the Iliffe notes it comments that the harmony changes at every bar, without exception. It carries on by stating that ‘dignity and solidity are secured by the sostenuto figure in the bass part and the texture of the whole Prelude is homogenous.
Regarding tempo, Sigrid Bruhn rightly states that ‘the tempo should be chosen with a view to convey the harmonic processes. Too fast a rendition easily diverts the listener’s attention towards an apparent display of virtuosity; too slow a tempo makes it difficult to hear more than one chord at a time’.
An early copy of this piece has an ornament (a mordent) in the R.H. in the penultimate bar.
www.handingonline.com/harpsichord