Harpsichord
Instruments that I use for concert and recording include:
The Franco/Flemish harpsichord which was built by Kevin Fryer, San Francisco in 2002. Its inuagural concert was a performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations by Jory Vinakour at the Art Museum at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA on November 28, 2002, sponsored by the Iowa City Early Keyboard Society.
The harpsichord is based on a 1624 instrument by Ioannes Ruckers, now under conservation in a museum in Colmar, France. In the 17th century the Rucker dynasty in their Antwerp workshop produced harpsichords that were prized all over Europe. The Rucker's instruments were famous for the eveness of their tone and their astonishing resonance. During the 18th century they were rebuilt, expanding the musical resources by preserving the soundboards and outer case of the instrument, but restringing the instrument to add more keys at the top end of the instrument (narrowing the size of the keys and the distance between strings.) Instrument makers in Paris were most famous for the art of rebuilding and redecorating to French taste the great Flemish instruments from the Ruckers workshop.
This instrument has two keyboards and three sets of strings: 8' and 4' pitches on played from the lower manual and 8' pitch from the upper manual. The keyboards can be coupled with a shove coupler. The range is 55 keys from GG/AA - d'''. The instrument is scaled at A = 415 but has a transposing keyboard that can be moved to set A = 440. In order to perform with modern instruments and orchestras.
The instrument was decorated by Adrian Card, San Francisco. The soundboard painting is a copy of the one on the orginal instruments, using only the natural pigments available in the 17th century. The exterior case decoration is based on renaissance silver designs published in pattern books for armor makers. The blockcup-papers lining the keywells and rim of the instrument interior suggest the Flemish origins of the instrument since the Ruckers workshop usually decorated their instruments with papers, rather than veneering or painting them.
The landscape on the lid was invented from a list of features (waterfalls, Romanesque ruins, etc) suggested by the musician and his wife, and were artfully assembled by Adrian to create a composition reminiscent of late 17th and early 18th century landscapes.
Clavichord
This clavichord was build by Peter Bavington, London in 2005. It is a copy of an 18th century anonymous clavichord from Portugal. It is a double fretted instrument. Fretted clavichords share each string with two adjacent keys. For example, middle C and C# both strike the same string, but in slightly different places. The instrument has a range of C - f'''. Unlike most fretted instruments of this period, it does not have a short octave at the bottom.
