For the harpsichord player

These recordings were made during few hours in Bergen, Norway  27.06.17

We used a french harpsichord with double manuals made by Joel Katzman and an italian harpsichord, Zuckerman (kits) with one manual. 

These are two harpsichords with very different timbres. Ideally, I would like to try two identical harpsichords  with double manuals.

 With me I was lucky to have my friend and cembalist Ingrid Eriksen Hagen who was invaluable regarding  playing and suggestions.

Outside the hymns and Scheidt that I brought with me  she found some  small random pieces that we tried to arrange. The sheet music we used are attached. Because of the unusual arranging of the keyboard we used color markings to avoid mistakes while playing and recording.

The main purpose for me was to get some acoustic material; unfortunately we didn`t have time practicing getting it without errors. And the width of the material isn`t large.

Of course I knew in advance about the difference between the timbres in the manuals and the jumping between manuals was as challenging as I thought. 

We therefore decided to use  the best and funniest way to play.

 We distributed  the music pieces between us with as smooth overlap as possible. And we tried to arrange the small pieces using the different timbres in a musical way.

I'm now convinced that 2 (or more) similar harpsichord (with 2 cembalists) with 2 manuals are the most ideal version of "In Tuningland" for original music from the 1500-1700's.

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What is "In Tuningland":

All cembalists who have tried to tune the white keys completely pure know that 2 pitches of D is required for this.

But that does not solve the problem. It is very annoying to hear them played right after each other.

I will say that In Tuningland hides this problem in an exciting way.

1.manual must have the tuning C 0 
2.manual must have the tuning Bb+1 

When tuning 1st manual in C 0 we will get two pitches of D, one on Eb key! but they are too far from each other, a comma.

If we have just one harpsichord the 2nd manual shall be tuned in Bb +1. 

On this manual we now find a D that is just in the middle of the 2 pitches of D from C 0.

On the other hand, on the 2nd manual we will find in a similar way 2 pitches of C,  one on C# key! also this with the distance of a comma.

But now on the 1st manual we happily find this C just in the middle of these.

In addition to  relieving the comma problem, the manuals complement each other as well regarding the pure chords.

See the tuning instructions  HERE

Here is a survey for the chords , where to find and which is highest in pitch.

It is very nice to play with completely pure chords but a comma shift of half a syntonic comma is maybe still a bit to much, so my favourite is to tune the fifths a bit narrow (half of the tempered fifths in equal temperament), and this was also the tuning used in our recordings.

If you later on will try to temper the tuning a bit I think it can be done easily for a trained harpsichordist, because you are still going to tune the major thirds pure, all the fifths shall be identical and the large comma shift and the half of it is the same everywhere. 
At the bottom of the  tuning instructions you will find a link to new instructions if you (like me) want to temper the fifths a tiny bit.
The link is placed down on the tuning page because the best you can do is to tune with pure fifths first to get familiar with the idea.
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Now you can tune your harpsichord(s) and use your ears to get familiar with the available pure chords.

Always be aware that each manual has  2 pitches of the II step so you do not miss some  pure chords.

Please note that some chords can be found in unexpected locations.

A pure Bm does not exist in C 0, but a bit surprising in Bb +1.

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Very interesting things can happen if we go for  a more flexible tuning. 4 manuals would then be desired.

1.harpsichord 1. manual C 0

                                   2.manual F 0

2. harpsichord 1. manual Bb +1

                                     2.manual G -1

The tuning instructions contain all this 4 setups.

The F 0 and G -1 can be swapped.

Since orginal material for this tuning doesn`t exist, the creative element here will be to find suitable composition  (preferably written for normal meantone.)

Secondly, the distribution of the manuals must be done in a musical manner.

One important advantage of tuning with these 4 manuals and 2 cembalists is that it reduce switching between the manuals.

Here is our recordings