> From: Donald Davison <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Bach harpsichord concertos
>
> 3. Intriguing results are obtained if one abandons the=20
> integer restriction on the number of harpsichords. Thus=20
> one might infer that Bach wrote about 6 concertos for one=20
> and a half harpsichords (using, say, an instrument which had
> been hammered so much that only half the notes worked). =20
> However, I believe that JSB was too much of a perfectionist=20
> to bother with such a hybrid (which would have severely
> cramped his style). In any case it would lead to=20
> endless bickering between the players as to who was=20
> going to play the dud harpsichord.=20
On the contrary; I believe Bach to have been so much of a perfectionist
that he was highly likely to have composed pieces for 'augmented'
harpsichords, with additional notes (quarter-tones, etc.) relative to
the traditional ones. These would certainly count as a non-integer
harpsichords. The previous respondent's error was to think of (e.g.)
1.5 harpsichords as an inferior version of 2 harpsichords, instead of as
a superior version of 1 harpsichord.
Nick Goldman
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nick Goldman [log in to unmask] http://ng-dec1.gen.cam.ac.uk
Dept of Genetics, Univ of Cambridge, Downing St, Cambridge CB2 3EH, U.K.
tel: +44-(0)1223-333981 (work) fax: +44-(0)1223-333992
tel: +44-(0)1763-853997 (home), +44-(0)7 01 07 11 07 21 (mobile)
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|