Scarlatti Played on Piano and Harpsichord Sound

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(Edited)

DomenicoScarlatti.jpg

This could have been a real duel, between piano and harpsichord. In fact, it is, but only in the sound, because I don't have a real harpsichord. Of course, as in the majority of the electric pianos, there is an option to change the sound of the instruments. In mine too. So, as I once played a composition with the sound of a harpsichord, it seemed to me that it would be very convenient to compare those two sounds once again. For the first time, I did it as the response post of one of the editions of the #SpreadTheVibes challenge, long time ago with the piece Badinerie by J.S. Bach. I looked back now, it was in February. Some months after that post, I am comparing again those two sounds with one baroque composition. This time, it is a sonata in A minor, composed by Domenico Scarlatti. One of his many sonatas.
Cover photo made in canva using this photo

If you are asking yourself what is a harpsichord, continue with the reading as I will try to explain the main difference between a piano and a harpsichord in just a few words. Ok, maybe sentences. Both are tempered keyboard instruments (it means that they are tuned in a fixed scale where one octave is divided into 12 equal semitones), and the sound comes from the vibration of the strings. Now, how we make the strings vibrate is the main point of the difference. In the case of a harpsichord, the strings are plucked with a plectrum. The plectrums can be made of leather or feather quills and when plucking the strings, a rattling, clipped sound can be heard. When we speak about the modern piano, there is a set of hammers (each key has one hammer) that hit the strings when we press a key on the keyboard. We can directly affect the volume and quality of the sound.

Nowadays, you will mostly hear the baroque keyboard compositions performed in the modern piano. However, in the time they were written, this instrument didn't exist. There were organs and harpsichords, spinets, virginals etc. but the piano, as we all know it today, came later to the scene. It was at the beginning of the 18th century when a maker of musical instruments, called Bartolomeo Cristofori started to work around that new type of keyboard instrument. Very grateful for his invention, as imagine if not, I would be miharpsichord here in hive :D ?

If you listened to this video while reading, you could hear the same composition played first with the regular piano sound. Later, in the second part of the same video, I played it with the harpsichord sound.

Well, if you like, you can express your opinion, what did you like more, the piano or the harpsichord sound? Do you think we should play the baroque keyboard compositions on the real instruments from that time, or do you think it is just fine that we pianists perform it on the modern piano, which has a different shape of the sound?

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P.S. I think I know which one is the preferred one of @stortebeker :)


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(Edited)

No hay nada como escuchar un poco de música clásica a primera hora de la mañana para elevar el espíritu... jajaja. Desde luego, para el barroco, el sonido original del clavicordio es mucho mejor. ¡Que pases un buen día, virtuosa! 😉

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Moltes gràcies @fjcalduch :)

Bueno, esta sonata puede servir bien para despertarse jejeje, sobre todo si lo escucho con el sonido de clavicordio. Un buen día para ti también 🌞

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Oh, you just know me so well! 😄

The piano sounds nice, but the harpsichord... simply amazing! As for the why, I think it has a lot to do with what you're used to. For this reason I can see baroque musicians who were so used to the harpsichord, feeling the same amazement towards the novelty of the modern piano.

In our days, the electric keyboard can reproduce a number of different sounds, so you could probably make the same piece sound like a cello or a saxophone... or even a Caribbean steel drum! Or, what I would be super curious to hear, the spinet and the virginal that you mentioned. I'm so unfamiliar with either of those instruments that I don't even know how to imagine it. Sure, I could consult Wikipedia, but at this point I'd rather wait for one of your wonderfully informative replies. 😉

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Hahaha, wonderfully informative replies. 😇

Oh my, I can not fail now haha. Pressure!!! So, spinet is a little bit smaller than harpsichord, and has the strings bent, like in another angle than the keyboard. The virginal is even smaller, has a rectangular shape, and the strings go parallel with the keyboard.

If you dont have time to search, here a bit of visual help:

Spinet:

Slade_Spinett.jpg

source

Virginal:

4345.jpg

source

Oh, you just know me so well! 😄

Regarding to this, I should clarify that I do have an elephant memory, for many things (ok, trying not to remember not nice things form the life in general, just the good ones :D ) So, I remember how you liked that sound when I posted it in February and you made a response post of the Spread The Vibes! How could I forget that? Örök hála 🙌

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Oh, this is just wonderful! You know what? My very first English teacher, a priest somewhere in the countryside of Békés megye in Hungary, had an actual virginal! I remember it quite well, and how I used to be fascinated by it. I was a five year old kid, taking English classes from this old man, who was really sweet. I remember how fascinated I was by his musical instruments (he also had a piano, a small organ, and a harpsichord), and he was a bit embarrassed, trying to keep my curiosity entertained, while steering my attention back toward the English language, which he was supposed to teach me, while appreciating my shared interest in unusual musical instruments.

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You always have some interesting stories! Cool. But wait, you were 5 and had English lessons? That is even more cool. It is so normal nowadays, small children learning languages at early age, but back in time, it was not so usual. (or , maybe you are a lot younger than me :) )
Of course, my son was also 5 when started with English lessons, but we talk about a different time. I suppose your English teacher played all those instruments, and was a collector as well, having them.

It is good when we have curious students, maybe we are not so happy when we have to try magic to bring back the attention of the student to the main subject of the lesson, but even that is better then a student without interest in anything.

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Well, to lay my cards on the table, the year was 1984. Make of it what you will, hehehe. And I guess you may be right, it was a bit unusual for that time. But my parents had always had this great dream of leaving what they would later call the “átkos”, so naming their son David and sending him to learn English at five was just part of it.

And for sure, my teacher was very passionate about collecting, and also playing instruments. In fact, I think he would have LOVED to teach me music (on the piano, harpsichord, or any other one of his keyboards), but that's not what my dad payed him for. So kept negotiating with me: a bit of English in exchange for a bit of fun on the organ, which was my favorite.

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Csúcs, én négy voltam amikor te öt :)) Hahah, now who wants to know my age, let translate :D

Yeah, I could imagine that maybe that was the reason for your English lessons, so it probably helped you, even if you were more interested in music and those keyboard instruments. Isn't it just great you could remember now your teacher and those lessons, yay, because of one hive post 😅

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Because of one Hive post? Sure... Though I'd say rather because of a commenter with whom I have a number of things in common, (beleértve a hasonló korunkat)! Ja, és te? Akkoriban már te is játszottál a zongorán - illetve a zongorával, hahaha?

I don't know how much those few words of English helped me, especially since we ended up in Germany, so I had to learn that language first. But thanks to these comments I thought back at how we played the organ with Pali Atya: My legs were too short to reach the pedals from the stool, so he had me stand in front of it to step on the keys, while he would accompany the sound I played with a matching sound on the keyboard. It was so much fun, particularly because I really liked the combination of the notes. He even tried to tell me which one I hit, a Fa or a Sol, but I didn't care so much for their names.

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😇😊

Well, I started to play with the piano around that age, 5, but really it was just exploring the sound and pressing keys of the piano hahaha, probably it was nothing meaningful. Lessons started when I was 8, well from that day I see the world in black and white (keys :D )

Wow, the approach of that Pali Atya was great, you were lucky to have him, and even luckier would be if he could teach you music instead of English. I can imagine you walking on the pedals of the organ and he improvising or playing matching chords and melody on the keyboard part. So cool! Good, good, good!!

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That's pretty much how it was. We did it slowly, sound by sound. I stepped on a pedal, and he played a chord to it, and it sounded nice. Then he tried another one, and it sounded even better. He asked me which one I preferred, then we continued with another one. I still remember the slow, drawn out sounds, kinda like ambient etheric music. Very lovely memories, I hadn't recalled at all since forever.

Of course, at five you would explore the sound by pressing keys of the piano! How else would you get the feel for it? I would argue that it may have been just as meaningful as the classes, if not more. But then again, I'm not an expert in early childhood education.

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Probably no suprise here that I prefer the harpsichord version. 😀
Though there is, in my opinion, nothing wrong with playing it on the piano. As long as the player enjoys it and makes it audible. The trick is, I think, not to try and emulate a harpsichord while playing piano, but to just really play the piano, with all the technical possibilities that offers.

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There is a trick, indeed, playing the baroque piece on piano, using all the possibilities of our queen of the instruments (oops, here we will not agree maybe heheh, ok, one of the queens of the instruments, with the organ included too :D )

But, if I use all the possibilities that the piano can offer, I could maybe overdo pedal using so I would fail in style correctness. So I am always trying to use as less as possible pedal with baroque compositions, though with those from classicism period, I use it with more confidence. Romanticism, hahaha, I don't detach my foot from it 🤣

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(Edited)

Nevertheless, that was exactly what I meant: use all the possibilities the piano has to offer when playing music like this on the piano. Seems a bit of a contradiction to try and turn it into an harpsichord.
Well, I am perhaps a bit odd in this respect.

O, and the organ is of course the King of instrument. So the piano may be Queen.. 😂

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This piano that I loved but no one support me when my teacher in elementary grade wanted to give me piano lesson. It was a broken dreamed.

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Oh, I am sorry you were not supported to have piano lessons in your childhood. Yeah, many times are dreams are not let flourish, but, hey, you can still start to learn it, it is not impossible. I have adult students, that started to learn from zero knowledge. If you can not manage lessons, well there are some applications around you can have use form them, although not a perfect solution but maybe it can work.

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(Edited)

Soon, when I will be home. I really love to hear the music played by piano.

!BEER

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There is absolutely so much for me to learn on this post..after being so intrigued by the post and the playing sounds, I got lost in the comment section😀😅

Me coming back to say thank you for stirring up such a conversation.

This is one of the many ways you inspire me.

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Hahaha, you see, we always have so much fun, maybe more in comment section than in the main post 😅 That is the real beauty, right? not posting for the sake of posting but having some interaction and if it inspires someone, that is even better.
You started very well on Hive Jaydr, that is great!! Don't stop engaging and bringing good stuff to Hive!! Have a good weekend, doc. 👋

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Good job! Not an easy piece to play, you did it awesomely. I can't decide which one I prefer...

Did you use a midi cable and change the Virtual instrument sound?

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Thank Ed, in this particular one I prefer the harpsichord sound, but usually yes, piano in my world!!

Well, I have some not nice moments with my interface, actually with the laptop where we installed the Presonus Studio One software. That is the only one that is running in our home on windows, so I used it for installing the Studio One. What happens is that is just doesn't recognize the interface if I connect it through the midi cable. Tried magic an no way, just no way , hence I can not use all the virtual sounds I have got with the software. Such a pity. The sound is what I can choose from my piano, not too much choice either, but strings, organ, a few different piano sound and harpsichord sound.

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I fail to understand if it's a cable issue? did you try with a different DAW?

I wish I could guide you through, it sounds like a plug and play issue, maybe you need an adapter from USB to midi.

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No solo es tocar el piano, sino hacerlo con calidad y con música de calidad.

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Exactamente, por lo menos eso es lo que intento jeje. Gracias @lecumberre por escucharme, un saludo y que pase un buen fin de semana!! :)

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(Edited)

Interesting topic. I have to say that just changing the sound doesn't really make a difference either way. Harpsichordists (and Baroque specialists) have a vastly different approach to aesthetics, timing, togetherness and the interpretation of the black and white print compared to their modern counterparts.

In both versions, I hear a good interpretation but from a modern point of view. Only the sound is different, but the interpretation is similar.

Of course, I'm not against modern interpretation (unlike some of my more fanatical colleagues...). There are good and bad interpretations from both modern and historically informed performers. However, for me, it strikes me as strange to interpret anything divorced from context... Especially as we know that basic word meaning (in language), preferences for 'beauty' (in art) have evolved and changed over the centuries! But somehow, for music we can happily accept traditional modern ideas without question and graft them into music where they were not relevant (or sometimes, completely opposed!).

Anyway, my background is that my day job is a Baroque violinist... So I'm definitely biased! That said, I enjoyed your playing as always!

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I have to be honest and say that I was thinking if you see the post, it would be great to hear your opinion. And you made it, a truly professional response, bringing details just one who is specialized in Baroque would do! Thank you @bengy !!

Yes, the topic was interesting so our friend primalamusica already made two posts derived from the thoughts from here. He was searching for different approach to interpretation, he opened more questions, and that is so good. I liked his move to create something different, some thing new.

I would like to have the opportunity to play a real harpsichord. Actually, I wanted it already when I was studying but there were no possibilities for that in those times and place where I was. I know, it is completely different style of playing. I played here both times just as a pianist would do, yeah 😅 I was thinking about the same when watched my own video. Without the sound from it, I would just imagine there the piano sound. :)

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Harpsichords and most of the old instruments are a pain in bum to maintain. But different types of keyboard are really fun to mess around on! We have (had) three different historical keyboards in our house. Double manual French harpsichord, a 5 octave Fortepiano and a clavichord. Unfortunately, the clavichord has gone back to its owner as we are leaving. The others will make the perilous journey back with us to Australia!

I just tuned one of our instruments last night and made a couple of short doodle recordings to see what it sounded like in different positions in car I wanted to make a video sometime.

I might post them up later if I figure out 3speak. I'm a bit camera shy so I'm not in it... But my avatar is! Plus, I'm not a harpsichordist (my wife is the keyboard player...) , so the playing is not the best!

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I saw your post and left there a comment :) Although I read this one yesterday morning, the day just disappeared.

Your post is funny, and your avatar played very well. And I forgot to say there that your wife's harpsichord is beautiful 🎶🎶

Moving to Australia and taking the instruments with you is amazing... I suppose taking a pianoforte and harpsichord so far away is not any easy to organize!

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