Harpsichords, temperaments, and computational musicology

Dr Dan Tidhar (University of Cambridge) delivers a colloquium on harpsichords, temperaments, and computational musicology

This colloquium presents the harpsichord from the special point of view of measured versus unmeasured notation and interpretation. Dan will discuss and demonstrate pieces by J.S. Bach, L. Couperin, F. Couperin, J.H. D’Anglebert, and other 17th and 18th century composers. He will provide a brief introduction to the instrument itself and will then talk about the notation and interpretation of unmeasured preludes, and demonstrate and discuss their relationship to conventionally notated pieces.

About the speaker

Dan Tidhar studied harpsichord with Mitzi Meyerson in Berlin and Ketil Haugsand in Cologne. Based in Cambridge since 2004, he combines a busy performance schedule with research into historical and computational musicology.

Recent highlights include a live broadcast of J.S. Bach’s harpsichord concerto in F major with the Israeli baroque orchestra Barrocade. He was guest editor of the November 2014 issue of Early Music, dedicated to early music and modern technology. He is a Research Associate at Wolfson College, Cambridge, and a Research Fellow at City University London.