Harpsichord
Maker
Jacques Germain
Date1785
Place MadeParis, France, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedSigned and dated on soundboard: [around carved rose] JACQUES GERMAINPainted on the soundboard: 1785
DescriptionThis harpsichord features the standard late-18th-century French disposition: two manuals with compass FF to f3; lower manual with quilled 8', a peau de buffle 8' (plucking the same set of strings as the quilled 8'), and 4'; upper manual with 8'; buff to the upper 8'; and shove coupler. Presumably, the registers were originally controlled by genouillères (knee pommels).
The keyboard naturals are made of ebony, while the sharps consist of hardwood stained black and covered with bone slips.
Although the instrument was unsympathetically rebuilt in the early 1950s, these alterations were reversed by Hugh Gough, from whom the NMM acquired the instrument in 1983. The soundboard, with its beautiful original decorative painting, is in an excellent state of preservation, as are the keyboards and the major components of the case. The Louis XV-style case is original, while the painted decoration on the case exterior and interior of the lid is an early-twentieth-century "enhancement." Most importantly, the instrument retains the superb, refined tone that is so characteristic of the 18th-century French harpsichord.
DimensionsLength: 7' 10 ½"
Width at keyboard: 3' 2½"
Height: 3' ¾"
String lengths in mm
< 8' 4'
f3 136 75
c3 176 85
f2 266 123
c2 359 168
f1 528 258
c1 694 336
f 980 484
c 1207 612
F 1517 807
C 1705 955
FF 1790 1166
ProvenancePurchased in 1983 from Hugh Gough, Inc., New York, New York.
In the 1920s the harpsichord was in the Marcel Salomon Collection/Gallery in Paris. Around 1930 it was purchased, presumably from Salomon, by Leander Sherman of the Sherman, Clay Music Company, San Francisco, California. By 1950 the harpsichord was in the possession of Fred R. Sherman, son of Leander Sherman. On March 31, 1950, John Challis in Detroit purchased it. In 1952 Challis sold it to E. McElwee of Hagerstown, Maryland. Tom and Barbara Wolf acquired the harpsichord at the McElwee estate sale. In 1981 they sold it to Hugh Gough, Inc., New York City.
Published References"1983 Acquisitions at USD Music Museum," Newsletter of the American Musical Instrument Society, Vol. XIII, No. 2 (June 1984), pp. 5-6.
Boalch, Donald H. Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord 1440-1840. Third edition, edited by Charles Mould (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), p. 334.
Germann, Sheridan. "Monsieur Doublet and His Confreres: The Harpsichord Decorators of Paris," pt. 2, Early Music, Vol. 9, No. 2 (April 1981), pp. 198-200 and 203.
-------. "'Mrs. Crawley's Couchet' Reconsidered," Early Music, Vol. 7, No. 4 (October 1979), pp. 479 and 481
"A Harpsichord of Note," The Harpsichord, Vol. VII, No. 4 (November- January 1974-75), pp. 10-11.
"Important Acquisitions of 1983 Await New Galleries," Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter, Vol. XI, No. 2 (January 1984), pp. 1-3.
Koster, John. "Restoration, Reconstruction and Copying in Musical Instrument Collections," Museum International, Vol. 189, No. 1 (January-March 1996), pp. 36-40.
Kuronen, Darcy. "Keyboard Instruments at The Shrine to Music Museum," Early Keyboard Studies Newsletter, Vol. VI, No. 1 (October 1991), pp. 7-8.
Laird, Paul. "American Musical Instrument Society at Shrine," Continuo (October 8, 1996), pp. 7-8.
Larson, André P. The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), p. 43.
-------. "Double Manual Harpsichord," South Dakota Musician, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Fall 1991), cover and p. 22
-------. "Please Join Us January 22 . . . Premiere Performance Will Feature Dutch Harpsichord Duo," Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 22, No. 1 (October 1994), pp. 1-2.
Russell, Raymond. The Harpsichord and Clavichord (London: 1959), p. 62.
Schulenberg, David. Music of the Baroque (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 213.
Sentenac, Paul. "Epinettes et clavecins decares," La Renaissance de l'art francais et des industries deluxe, 6e annee, No. 5 (May 1923), p. 262.
Wolf, Thomas. “Goermans (Germain)” The Harpsichord and Clavichord: An Encyclopedia, Igor Kipnis, Ed. (New York: Routledge),2006, p. 211.
CDs
Haas, Arthur. Harpsichord Music of Jean-Henry D'Anglebert (Berkeley, California: Wildboar, 1988).
Parmentier, Edward. Bach: Toccatas BWV 910-916 Complete (Berkeley, California: Wildboar, 1998).
Parmentier, E. Johann Sebastian Bach: Six English Suites (Berkeley, California: Wildboar, 1993).
Haas, A. Jean-Baptiste Forqueray, Suites Clavecin 1747 (Berkeley, California: Wildboar, 1992).
Credit LineRawlins Fund, 1983
Object number03327
On View
Not on view
1625-1675 ca.
