Customer Reviews

The Historical Harpsichord: A Monograph Series in Honor of Frank Hubbard, Vol. 1

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In many respects, I cannot disagree with the 'Baroque Music Lover' review more. This series, edited by the late Howard Schott, I consider exemplary and full of solid, useful knowledge. Yes, this series certainly isn't cheap, but then scholarly and esoteric items of this high calibre very rarely are. I found William Dowd's analysis of the surviving Blanchet workshop instruments in Volume One fascinating and invaluable, and the complex scholarship on music wire metallurgy contained in a subsequent volume quite challenging and thought provoking. In fact, I considered the latter book an open invitation to further investigation into various aspects of metallurgy to fill gaps in my knowledge, allowing me to then make full use of the information the volume contained. This ain't People Magazine, after all.

I will concede, however, that the earlier reviewer is perfectly right as regards the lack of illustrative photos. In print density, these books are very heavy, but a better job on illustrations would certainly have been helpful but not, to my mind, essential. I accept the view that the publishers could have done a better job here, but I can live with that in light of its other benefits.

If you are looking for a coffee table book full of full-colour pictures combined with important scholarship, then I cannot recommend John Koster's superb book on the Boston Museum Collection (ISBN 978-0878464012)or Ed Kottick's excellent A History of the Harpsichord (ISBN 978-0253341662) highly enough. Perhaps 'Baroque Music Lover' might have been better off starting with either of these titles instead.

a very thoroughly researched study of various aspects of the harpsichord for lovers of this instrument, builders as performers aswell. (I am speaking as a former student of Frank Hubbard.)