The Lute-Harpsichord

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Luthiers

Manuals

Ocatave Stop Lever

Plectrums

The Majority of information related to the construction of Lute-Harpsichords comes from only three 18th century German luthiers: Johann Christoph Fleischer, Johann Nicolaus Bach and the organ builder Zacharias Hildebrandt.

http://www.romanektihamer.hu/download/video/04%20va.wmv

The Lute Harpsichord grows in popularity...?

Future Possibilities

Bach Dies

Stops

1980's

"The inventory of Bach's possessions at the time of his death reveals that he owned two such (lute-harpsichords) as well as three harpsichords, one lute and a spine"

History

Gergely Sárközy commissions a Lute-Harpsichord from Tihamer Romanek

1750

The Lute-Harpsichord

Anatomy

1740

J.G.Walther writes about the lute-harpsichord in his Musical Encyclopedia

Johann Nicolaus Bach (1669-1753)

"The editor of these notes remembers having seen and heard a "Lautenclavicymbel" in Leipzig in about 1740, designed by Mr. Johann Sebastian Bach and made by Mr. Zacharias Hildebrand, which was smaller in size than a normal harpsichord but in all other respects similar. It had two choirs of gut strings, and a so-called little octave of brass strings. It is true that in its normal setting (that is, when only one stop was drawn) it sounded more like a theorbo than a lute. But if one drew the lute-stop (such as is found on a harpsichord) together with the cornet stop [?the 4' brass stop undamped], one could almost deceive professional lutenists.”

Johann Friedrich Agricola described a Lautenwerk that belonged to Bach:

1732

1720

Andrea Sacchi Painting of an upright lautenwerk or clavicytherium

J.S. Bach Commissions Zaccharias Hildebrand to Construct a Lute-Harpsichord he designed

1640

1511

Engraving and First written record of the Lute-Harpsichord

(A second cousin of Johann Sebastian)was a composer, organist and instrument maker in Jena. He too built several types of lute-harpsichords. The standard model had a single (gut-stringed) stop that sounded a pair of strings tuned an octave apart.

He also made instruments with two and three manuals, whose keys sounded the same strings but with different quills and at different points of the string, so providing two or three grades of dynamic and timbre. J. N. Bach also built theorbo-harpsichords with a compass extending down an extra octave.

Parchment Roset in a Lautenwerck Soundboard

Johann Cristopf Fleischer (1676-1732)

Fleishcer built two types of instrument. The smaller had two 8-foot gut-stringed stops with a range of three octaves. In the lower two octaves these could be coupled with a 4-foot stop to a pair of octave-tuned bass strings. Below the soundboard was an oval resonator in the shape of a shell or half pear, resembling the body of a lute.

Fleischer called his larger instrument the "Theorbenflugel" (theorbo-harpsichord). Its two gut-stringed stops together made up a double-tuned, 16-foot stop, with pairs in the lower octave-and-a-half tuned an octave apart, and in the upper range in unison. In addition there was a 4-foot metal-stringed stop, and the combination of the 4-foot and the 16-foot stops produced a "delicate and bell-like" tone. This larger instrument was in the shape of a regular concert harpsichord.

Jacquet de la Guerre: Harpsichord Suite No.3

Played by Elizabeth Farr

Resonater

Zaccharias Hildebrand (1685-1770)

Zacharias Hildebrandt was a German organ builder and instrument maker. In 1714 his father, a cartwright master, apprenticed him to Gottfried Silbermann in Freiberg.In 1723 J.S. Bach composed the Festival Cantata BWV 194 for the dedication of Hildebrandt's new organ at Störmthal.In 1727he had repaired the Swallows' Nest organ at Thomaskirche to make it playable again. He may have done this at J.S. Bach‘s request in time for the first performance of J.S. Bach‘s Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) in 1727. Unfortunately the church records here are listed only by year and not specific date which would confirm this possibility.Throughout the late 1730’s and 1740’s Hildebrandt was a colleague of J.S. Bach's in Leipzig. He tuned the harpsichords at the Thomaskirche and Nikolaikirche, and built a Lautencembalo (lute-harpsichord) for J.S. Bach about 1739.

One of his luteharpsichords appeared in a description by Johann Friedrich Agricola from 1768.

"The author remembers that around 1740 he had seen a luteharpsichord in Leipzig and it was built by Zaccharias Hildebrand for J.S.Bach. Its size was smaller than a normal harpsichord but in other respects it was similar. Every double gut strings were stretched out. With one compass, in the manner of theorba, turning both of them on, it sounded as it was a professional lute-player playing. Hildebrand's instrument was completed by the summer of 1739, when Wilhelm Friedemann Bach went to visit his father with 2 lute-players: Johann Kropfgangs and Silvius Leopold Weiss."

The only other note worthy 18th Century Lute-Harpsichord builders were Johann Georg Gleichmann (1685-1770) and Christian Ernst Friderichi (1709-1780). Earnst invented the perpendicularly stringed harpsichord.

Modern Builders

Anden Houben http://www.baroquemusic.org/barluthp.html

Tihamer Romanek

http://www.romanektihamer.hu/eng/intro.html

http://www.romanektihamer.hu/download/video/05%20bm_gbhome.wmv

Steven Sørli

http://www.lautenwerk.com/index.htm

Triple Course