室內音樂: 大鍵琴〔鋼琴的前身〕/ Chamber Music: Harpsichord

After the enjoyable Gala Opening Concert with Angela Hewitt and Daniel Müller-Schott last Saturday, I reviewed the 112 events of this year's Chamberfest and discovered that the program is full of performances that would appeal to even a chamber music non-connoisseur like myself. So, on Sunday evening, I found myself again in another old church listening to Mr. Thomas Annand, the Director of Music there, playing Bach's The Art of the Fugue賦格藝術with his Harpsichord 大鍵琴

While a lot of classical music we hear are played by the piano鋼琴, many of the older pieces were actually written for the Harpsichord before the piano was invented. The two instruments might look alike from a distance but they are quite different. For one thing, the strings of the Harpsichord are being plucked instead of hit and the original keyboard instrument was considered more like a piece of furniture as compared to say a gigantic stand-alone grand piano with legs. The sound from a Harpsichord is actually closer to that of a guitar結他, another plucked instrument.

As to our performer Mr. Thomas Annand, according to the Chamberfest brochure, he is also organist and harpsichordist for the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Thirteen Strings, and co-founder and conductor of Capital BrassWorks. He has been featured at the International Congress of Organists, Carmel Bach Festival, and Boston Early Music Festival. At the beginning of the performance, he engaged the audience by explaining the structure of Bach's Art of the Fugue. He then captured the audience's attention with his technical mastery of the Harpsichord. Waves and waves of music just flowed from his finger tips through the Harpsichord and up to the stained glass windows and wooden ceiling of the old church. Without even knowing it myself, I was seeing polynomial equations, converging and diverging infinite series, and all kinds of mathematical variables, constants, formulae, and transformations. I actually did not quite understand what was going on and why the music would have that kind of imagery impacts on me. Was it because of my engineering, science and technology mind? It was only after my friend explained to me later that I realize what Mr. Annand meant by Bach's musical "structure", There is actually an intricate link between the old master's music works and mathematics !!!

Having heard my story and looking at the pictures, some of you might be tempted to buy one of those beautiful Harpsichords for your living room to replace that old sofa of yours. Come to think of it, may be one for the cottage to show off to your high school buddies during intermission of the Ultimate Fighters. As luck would have it, there is a Harpsichord maker in Montreal who is one of the few in the world who knows how to hand-make just what you want. How much you ask? Well, as they say, if you have to ask, you probably can't afford it. For a mere CDN$20,000 to $30,000, you can own one of these beauties. Of course, special in-laid art work, paintings, optional features and shipping are extra. But again, if you are as skillful and passionate about music as Mr. Thomas Annand, I am sure money is just a means to an end.

(有關攝影图片 / Photo credit: Wikipedia)

其它資料 / Other info:

1. Harpsichord / 大鍵琴
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpsichord
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/hpsi.html

2. Hand-made Harpsichords by Yves Beaupré of Montrél, Canada and price list / 加拿大滿地可手做大鍵琴工匠及價目表
http://www3.sympatico.ca/clavecin/fr17-a.html
http://www3.sympatico.ca/clavecin/prix2.pdf

3. German composer Johann Sebastian Bach / 德國作曲家約翰·塞巴斯蒂安·巴赫 (巴哈)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach
http://zh-classical.wikipedia.org/wiki/巴赫
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.557625-26

4. The Art of the Fuque (German: Die Kunst der Fuge), BWV 1080 (unfinished work by Johann Sebastian Bach / 賦格藝術 (約翰·塞巴斯蒂安·巴赫 或巴哈之未完傑作)
http://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/賦æ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Fugue