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BERNARD BRAUCHLI, ALBERTO GALAZZO, JUDITH WARDMAN eds. De Clavicordio XII: The Clavichord as a Pedagogical Instrument: Past, Present and Future; Other Topics (History, Restoration, Building, etc.). Proceedings of the XII International Clavichord Symposium / Atti XII Congresso Internazionale sul Clavicordio Magnano, 1-5 September 2015 (Magnano: Musica Antica a Magnano, 2017). 127 pp., illus. ISBN 978-88907624-4-4 (paperback). Price: euro45.00.
Since 1986 the organization Musica Antica a Magnano has been offering courses, concerts, and conferences relating to the clavichord in the northeastern Italian town of Magnano. Founded in 1994 and still led by Bernard Brauchli, author of The Clavichord (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, r2000), it has published 12 volumes of conference proceedings under the title De clavicordio.
Despite the bilingual title, all 11 contributions to the present volume are in English, each followed by abstracts in that language and in Italian. They focus on three areas: pedagogy; music; and instruments, the last subdivided between historical and modern examples. The greatest interest for general readers may lie in two contributions on eighteenth-century sources which the authors believe contain idiomatic clavichord music. It may, however, be the six essays on organology and instrument collections that include matter of the most lasting value. Three offerings on performance and pedagogy seem ephemeral.
Nearly all the contributions reflect their origin as informal talks. Although this can be refreshing, the inclusion of essential bibliographic information in citations is hit or miss, and the quality of the argumentation varies considerably. I am not sure that every one of the articles merited publication, but in any case, several of them would have been strengthened by a firmer editorial hand.
The strongest item in the volume may be the last, by...