TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
9th Biennial Conference on Baroque Music
ABSTRACT
Perfect Vibrations: Pasquali’s “Art of Fingering” and the New Keyboard
Aesthetic
Joyce Lindorff
In the “Art of Fingering,” (1758, published after his death) Nicolo
Pasquali sought to impart all his knowledge of harpsichord playing. He
provided information in the areas he considered basic and important: fingering,
technique, ornamentation, touch, and tuning. Also included are his personal
opinions about the suitability for the harpsichord of certain contemporary
compositions. In these comments can be read evidence of the changes in
touch, texture and performance style which became part of the transition
away from Baroque textures and into those we now consider Classical. Only
a few years earlier, the “usual” touch had been described as detached by
C. P. E. Bach. Pasquali clearly asserts that legato, as the usual touch,
creates the perfect vibration of the strings, through continuity of sound.
Works championed by Pasquali--the Concertos of Handel and the Lessons of
Alberti--are seen to contain textures in keeping with this sought-after
fullness and continuity. Examples will be demonstrated. Although Pasquali’s
suggestions were thoroughly harpsichordistic in seeking fullness through
texture, they must be viewed as transitional; it was this very desire for
fullness and sound that led to the harpsichord’s eventual demise and the
ceding of its role to the pianoforte.
Last updated on 9 June 2000 by Yo
Tomita