How would I determine which of the earlier instruments to consider for purchase? Are there any good books on harpsichords?
The array of early keyboard instruments does seem bewildering. Perhaps the easiest way to thread ones way through them is to relate them to the type of music that was written for them, and to chose your harpsichord based on the music you wish to play. In an ideal world I would recommend that everyone have a French or Flemish double, an Italian single, a virginal, a spinet and two clavichords, one large and one small, to play everything “properly”. There are a few, not many professionals who have this many instruments, but I know several amateurs who do! The French double is the what most people mean by harpsichord. It will have two manuals, usually 61 to 63 notes per, three sets of strings (two pairs for each note at regular pitch, one set is half-length, which sounds an octave higher), three or more choirs of jacks and a coupling mechanism so that the sets can be switched in and out of play for a fuller effect. This is a late type of instrument, historically (1720’s to French revoluti
