I randomly happened upon this piece on YouTube today and thought I would share it.
From listening to some (admittedly overplayed) pieces from the Baroque era (Vivaldi's Four Seasons; Bach's Harpsichord Concerto No.1, BWV 1052; etc.), I had wondered whether the metallic tone of the harpsichord was ever really taken advantage of. I remember reading about its poor projection in concert halls and that its metallic tone was basically the only thing that was audible in larger orchestral pieces.
But, finally, today I found a piece that really brings the "metal" out of the harpsichord. Interestingly enough, it comes from a French Baroque era composer by the name of Pacrance Royer, who wrote a whole book of Pièces de clavecin. From this book, I stumbled into Le Vertigo (Rondeau). I really enjoy the performance by French harpsichordist Jean Rondeau (what an awesome and fitting name!). The ending is ... unexpected — and I really like the video itself.
If, after watching the performance video, you'd like to follow along in the music, it starts on page 19 of the typeset edition by Nicolas Sceaux via IMSLP.org.
I didn't know before that Royer is known for his virtuosic harpsichord writing, but the last piece in the book, La marches des Scythes, is the most well-known. If you like a particular piece from Pièces de clavecin (perhaps Le Vertigo), leave it in the comments!
A harmonic analysis of this piece would be a good exercise for a beginning music theory student, but maybe I'll do it for fun and edit this post later — for now, hope you enjoy this fun piece!
