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The copy of Trasuntino 1531

Soundboard of Trasuntino copyIn October 2010 we bought the copy of a Trasuntino 1531 harpsichord (the original belongs to Royal College of Music, London) from its former owner, Philip Pickett. The instrument is built by Joel Katzman, Amsterdam in 1999 and it gained quite some attention when it was presented. Both its remarkable sound from the low tension stringing as well as the playing pitch ‘a Fourth below Chorton’, as Praetorius described such an instrument in his Syntagma Musicum (1619).
The low pitch (A=348Hz) gives quite a darkness to music we thought we knew.

See Philip Pickett’s description of the instrument here and use the music player on top of this page to navigate to a sound sample. Further documentation and discussion on the instrument and 16th Cent. pitch is also printed in Harpsichord and Fortepiano Vol. 9 No. , 2001.