Early Keyboard Instruments

Discusses a variety of issues involved in the performance of keyboard music from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Forms a useful introduction to historical performance issues for student performers or amateurs, whether playing on period instruments or on the modern piano.

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Early Keyboard Instruments covers a wide range of performance issues on keyboard instruments relevant to the music from c.1700–c.1900. It includes descriptions of the harpsichords, clavichords, pianos and other stringed-keyboard instruments used by performers of the period as well as aspects of technique such as harpsichord registration, piano pedalling and keyboard fingering. Aspects of the notation of keyboard music are discussed, as is articulation, embellishment, tempo flexibility and rubato. A substantial chapter is devoted to case studies, illustrating how the aspects of performance discussed in the rest of the book are worked out in practice, whether playing on period instruments or on the modern piano.