Monthly Archives: May 2007
May 20, 2007 Music for an 18th Century Drawing Room
May 20, 2007, 4 p.m. Savannah College of Art and Design, Kiah Hall, Martin Luther King Blvd, Savannah, Georgia Anne will play harpsichord and fortepiano, and discuss musical life in private homes in England and the colonies in the 18th century, in an afternoon program for the English Speaking Union, Savannah, Georgia Chapter. English Speaking Union website Review from the ESU website Our own Anne Acker was the speaker and performer for our meeting this month. To see Anne, one would hardly expect to see her moving pianos and other heavy musical instruments about, but that was exactly what she does for a living. Anne brought a Piano Forte and a Harpsichord to the meeting with her. After our president Barbara O. Smith introduced her, Anne answered a few interesting questions about the instruments that she brought with her. These were beautiful pieces of woodworking craft that were either built or restored by Anne at her shop. Anne then began the meeting with what everyone present agreed was a stunningly beautiful demonstration of each instruments capability. It was actually more than that. It was a wonderful concert presented for our pleasure. Everyone sat spellbound while listening and watching Anne’s nimble […]
Harpsichord videos
Two informal recordings from Brad Lehman:
A Sarabande in A major by Buxtehude, played first in A major (three sharps) and then transposed to A-flat major (four flats).
In his own words,
Informal rehearsal at home January 2005, demonstrating the tuning from Lehman’s research on the Well-Tempered Clavier [… and the] differences of expressive character within this unequal tuning.
The harpsichord here is in Flemish style, and was built by Anne Acker. There is only one set of strings at “8-foot” pitch, but the tuning lends such different tone to different keys (with sharps vs flats) that it sounds almost like a change of instrument.
Additional classical music videos are on Brad Lehman’s YouTube page.