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Up in the hills of <\/span>West Vancouver, there is a house entirely furnished with harpsichords and other exotic early keyboard instruments. They are the work of Craig Toml<\/span>inson, one of Canada\u2019s two makers of early keyboard instruments.<\/p>\n Craig began instrument building at 16 with a simple dulcimer. It now hangs on the living room wall, a reminder of his modest beginnings amidst the collection of harpsichords, clavichords, virginals, and fortepianos.<\/p>\n The revivalist movement in musical-instrument making began in the 1930s and, by the 1960s, classical music circles began to appreciate what original instruments could bring to performances of the great Baroque masters (Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and so forth).<\/p>\n In 1975, Craig was asked to work on a two-manual French harpsichord. The challenge of this task opened up a new world for him. He worked on kit instruments over the next few years, but could hear and see the limitations of factory-produced kits. So in 1978, Craig headed down to Berkeley to learn the craft of building early keyboards. This led him to a rediscovery of the building methods of old-world craftsmen, after whom he modelled his instruments.<\/p>\n \u201cThe harpsichord I envisioned combined a perfect balance between the tonal intricacies of the sound and the beauty of the instrument and its decoration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n My tour across Craig\u2019s living room was chronological and, although time seemed to fly, I know 350 years of keyboard development passed before I reached the other side.<\/p>\n Gazing at the collection, I asked Craig if people who buy his instruments are performers or simply collectors. He said that most buyers are in fact performers, although he cited one large glossy magazine in Palm Springs, California that posited the notion that you\u2019re not really on the \u2018A\u2019 list until you have your own French Double Harpsichord.<\/p>\n Virginal<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n As with all of his instruments, the virginal was painted by Craig\u2019s mother, Olga Kornavitch-Tomlinson. An artist in her own right, she decorates the instruments by combining historical authenticity and her own instincts as an artist.<\/p>\n Harpsichord<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps to dispel the notion that early music people don\u2019t have a sense of humour, Craig told me the story about the Scotsman who snuck up on him while he had his head deep inside the 1769 harpsichord, and thundered the \u201cbiggest and loudest chord\u201d Craig had ever heard played on any harpsichord.<\/p>\n Once again, there was a techie<\/i> segment to the tour and Craig showed me the transposition block, a slab of wood used to shoehorn the instrument up and down in pitch.<\/p>\n In an age of globalization and standardization, it\u2019s hard to imagine some of the madness that goes on in musical circles with regard to pitch. North American orchestra\u2019s tune to A=440 Hertz, while their European counterparts tune to A=442 (or A=444 if you\u2019re in Vienna, or A=444.5 on K\u00e4rntner Strasse between the hours of 3 and 5 pm). Geography plays a part in pitch, as does time. In fact, pitch has crawled up steadily since the heydays of most of these instruments. Since Bach was around, they\u2019ve crawled up to the tune of a full semi-tone.<\/p>\n Curiously, this rise of an exact semi-tone makes the transposition block possible. Craig pulled the block out from the left side of the keyboard, shunted the keyboard to the left (into the vacant place), and then pushed the block into the right side and, voil\u00e0, the entire instrument now played a full (Baroque) semitone lower.<\/p>\n Clavichord<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t play much any more, he said, but showed me how difficult an instrument a clavichord can be owing to its soft, but exacting touch. There\u2019s no margin for error. He tapped a few neat and precise chords and the instrument whisper shyly. Take note you who might be thinking of buying one of those condos in False Creek\u2014this is the instrument for you. It has a projectional range of about three feet, guaranteed to disturb no one, and it\u2019s very soothing on frayed nerves.<\/p>\n Fortepiano<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n The name difference seems moot, but the two are quite different. While the fortepiano can and does have dynamics, it was no match for the thundering sonorities in the age of Romantic composers (Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff) and so it fell from favour when the robust pianoforte appeared on the scene.<\/p>\n In recent decades, an interest in authentic performances of earlier works necessitated the revival of the comparatively delicate fortepiano. In fact, the Vancouver Opera will be using Craig\u2019s fortepiano in their performance of Mozart\u2019s La Clemenza di Tito<\/i> in February 2011. It is a beautiful instrument based on one Anton Walter built in Vienna in 1795. The original now resides in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg.<\/p>\n Techie bit: The fortepiano doesn\u2019t have pedals like modern pianofortes; it has knee levers. I\u2019m sure it works better than it appears, but the fortepianist sustains notes by raising a damper rail\u2014with his knees. \u201cThe right lever raises only the treble dampers and the left lever raises the entire damper rail\u201d, said Craig. I tried not to resist the uncomfortable imagines of the poor player squirming away on the fortepiano bench, first knees, then legs and, finally buttocks join in.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/viginal.jpg\")
<\/a>The grand old lady by the front door is an exquisitely ornate 1608 virginal. She was inspired by two 17th century Flemish instruments made by the Ruckers family of Antwerp. I was so entranced with the sheer beauty of this instrument that I could hardly follow his description of its nifty short octave bass, which expands the lower octave downwards by replacing the chromatic black notes with diatonic white tone pitches (although, you wouldn\u2019t know to look at it). Sorry for the tech-speak<\/i>, but I think this means that the player can play down to a G below the expected low C, but my eyes were feasting on the trompe l\u2019\u0153il<\/i>, elaborate Latin mottos, and swirling arabesques.<\/p>\n<\/a>The harpsichord in is a replica of one Craig received a Canada Council grant to travel to Scotland to research. To research the instrument (this one was based on a Pascal Taskin of Paris, now residing in a collection in Edinburgh), Craig had to photograph, measure, disassemble, and incredibly, even get inside it.<\/p>\n<\/a>The clavichord dates back to the 1400s, but the instrument in Craig\u2019s studio was a replica of one from 1784. Curiously, its visual simplicity seemed downright West Coast, reminiscent of the beautiful Arts and Crafts style furniture I\u2019ve seen on Salt Spring Island and the Sunshine Coast. Craig attributed this to the cherry wood and, of course, its admittedly unembellished appearance.<\/p>\n<\/a>There\u2019s a funny thing about the origin of the name of the modern instrument, the \u201cpiano\u201d. In 1713, when harpsichord maker Bartolomeo Cristofori invented an instrument that could play both soft and loud (unlike the harpsichord), he called it a \u201cloudsoft\u201d or fortepiano. This was the instrument Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven wrote for (well, before old Ludwig smashed his to bits that is), and it was the immediate precursor to today\u2019s pianoforte. You say fortepiano, I say pianoforte.<\/p>\n