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Contemporary Harpsichord & Extended 
Techniques 
 

My harpsichord research focuses on exploring the instrument's sonic possibilities beyond its traditional role. Through the use of extended techniques, preparations, and live electronics, the harpsichord reveals an entirely new sound world embracing the language of contemporary and experimental music.  

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ANNA THORVALDSDÓTTIR IMPRESSIONS (2015)

For prepared harpsichord

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Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdóttir is one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary music today, known for her atmospheric textures, organic sonic landscapes, and meticulous attention to timbre. Impressions was composed in 2015 and dedicated to harpsichordist Guðrún Óskarsdóttir, who gave the first performance on 30 January 2016 at Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavík.

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The work is structured in three movements and requires the performer to play both on the keyboard and inside the instrument. The harpsichord is prepared with various materials, and the performer's hands move between the keys and the strings, producing a kaleidoscope of sounds. 

Composed in 2009 and dedicated to harpsichordist Maja Mijatović, Sequitur XII is part of Karlheinz Essl's Sequitur cycle, a collection of fourteen works for solo instrument and live electronics composed between 2008 and 2010. Inspired by Luciano Berio's Sequenze, the cycle explores the unique technical and timbral possibilities of each instrument while creating an interactive musical dialogue between performer and real-time electronic processing.

 

At the heart of the project is the Sequitur Generator, a custom software environment developed by Essl in Max/MSP. Rather than accompanying the performer with pre-recorded sounds, the software continuously analyzes the live instrumental signal and generates an evolving eight-voice electronic canon derived entirely from the performer's sound. Because the electronic processes respond dynamically to the live input, every performance is unique.

 

In Sequitur XII, Essl radically reimagines the harpsichord by moving beyond its traditional keyboard technique and characteristic plucked sound. Instead, the performer explores the instrument through rubbing, scraping, tapping the soundboard, directly exciting the lowest string, and manipulating a nylon fishing line attached to the instrument.

 

A contact microphone captures even the smallest vibrations, allowing acoustic gestures and electronic transformations to merge into a single hybrid sonic environment. Although the score is precisely notated, the interaction between performer and electronics introduces an element of unpredictability. The electronic performer shapes the live processing in real time, continuously responding to the harpsichordist's gestures through parameters such as transposition, tremolo, frequency shifting, ring modulation, flanging, reverberation, and spatialization.

 

This constant dialogue transforms the instrument into what Essl describes as a "meta-instrument", where acoustic sound and digital processing become inseparable.

HARPSICHORD EXTENDED TECHNIQUES

catalogue for performers and composers

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This video provides practice‑based demonstration of (some) harpsichord extended techniques. It is the direct outcome of the research conducted for my Master’s thesis, Oltre il ponticello: Tecniche estese e nuove pratiche performative nel repertorio clavicembalistico contemporaneo (Conservatorio “Niccolò Piccinni”, Bari, 2026). The material is organised around two case‑study whose performance requirements constitute the core of the catalogue presented here. A number of additional techniques shown in this video are the result of the research carried out by extending the repertoire of gestures and drawing on my personal background as a pianist and experimental improviser. 

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  • Pizzicato on open and damped strings (with and without the jack mechanism)

  • Harmonics from the 1st to the 11th overtone

  • Glissandi with fingertips, glass, and metal

  • Tremolo with fingers and palm

  • Aeolian harp technique (bowing the strings)

  • Preparations with nylon thread, plastic dowels, metal screws, Patafix, glass, and metal objects

  • E-bow activation of strings beyond the bridge

  • Superball: bouncing, rubbing, and percussion on strings and wood

  • Techniques drawn from the repertoires of Anna Thorvaldsdóttir's Impressions and Karlheinz Essl's Sequitur XII

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