On February 13, 2016, a crowd of harpsichord devotees gathered at Reed College in Portland to hear the lush sounds of a late French harpsichord as it brought to life the music of Jean-Phillipe Rameau and François Couperin le Grand. Event Publicity
Owen Daly, harpsichord builder from Salem, Oregon, spoke about his love of the music and his delight in sharing it. He discussed Couperin’s pivotal position in keyboard literature, as regards both harmonic language and keyboard technique – employing both traditional and newer fingerings – referring to a facsimile of the Cinquième (5th) Prelude in A-Major, from L’Art de Toucher le Clavecin provided on the reverse of his program. Printed Program Page 1 Printed Program Page 2
Owen described the history of the French double harpsichord used for the recital, first built by him in 1984 and recently redecorated and restored with historical wire, jacks and quill. He shared his first-hand knowledge of the prototype instrument, the c.1749 harpsichord by Goujon which is now in the Cité de la Musique near Paris. It was fascinating to hear that the Goujon was intended to deceive the observer into believing that it was an enlarged Ruckers instrument: paint was used to mimic the joints one would have seen in a Ruckers ravalement.
