Saturday, July 16, 2011

Harpshichord sales, 1600-2010



via

7 comments:

davidly said...

Looks like they're due for a comeback!

Randal Graves said...

Why must you harpsichord on this?

In penance for such unfunny, I'm gonna bust out some Haydn.

antonello said...

That surge beginning in the 1950's: the impact, I would guess, of Wanda Landowska.

Does "harpsichord" include the tinny electronic kind so popular in '60's music? That would make the surge more plausible. There aren't many traditional harpsichords in pop culture, with rare exceptions (e.g., The Rolling Stones' "Lady Jane" or Lurch from The Addams Family). Sometimes it appears as background music, especially when something sinister is going on. It's also the invariable accompaniment to footage of spiders making webs.

I suppose people think the harpsichord is creepy. A shame, if true. Aside from the guitar, it's my favorite musical instrument. I don't play it, though, or anything else.

Who were those modern-day people who bought so many harpsichords? That would be as interesting a question as the matter of their sales. They couldn't have all been from the rarefied circle of William F. Buckley, Jr.

So, then, Randal: your advice is "Haydn, go seek"?

Jonathan Versen said...

Harpsichord humor makes me think of that episode of Star Trek with the God-like being who thought Captain Kirk came to his planet in a 1600s era space ships. I want to say his name was Trelayne. I wish I could remember the actor's name; I think he passed away recently.

Come to think of it, that episode came out around 1966...

Ethan said...

Jonathan--The Squire of Gothos! Yeah, the actor did just die recently--if I remember correctly he also played the Klingon captain in The Trouble With Tribbles. As relates to harpsichords, my guess is that the episode trails the phenomenon rather than leads it, because that's usually a safe bet with Star Trek (much as I love it).

Randal and antonello, I'm going to complain about the puns, but only to mask the fact that I can't keep up.

And antonello--I mean, the late 60s did see that whole wonderful "baroque pop" boom, The Left Banke and all that (not to mention The Baroque Beatles Book and other novelties), so real harpsichords were all over the place, briefly. I think it was around the same time that period performance became popular for baroque music, wasn't it? I would bet that the spike tapers off mostly because everyone realized at the same time how often harpsichords need tuning, heh.

I've only played a harpischord once--or I should say tried to play. It was when I was in high school, my piano teacher had one briefly that he was repairing for someone, I tried out some of the Bach I was playing at the time on it and my god was it difficult. The feel of it is utterly different. I would love to have one and really learn to play it, but considering that i don't even really remember how to play piano anymore (at least not in that way) I think it would be a challenge. Plus the tuning.

davidly--god, I wish.

Ethan said...

PS I also of course have a feeling that the graph is slightly fictional...

Ethan said...

Oh weird--apparently as I typed "The Left Banke," the re-formed band itself was 45 minutes away from playing in-studio at WFMU. Who fucking knew.