Beebe

Carey Beebe is the most traveled and best known Australian harpsichord maker. He has scrutinized original instruments in museums and private collections, and maintained or prepared instruments for concerts, broadcasts or recordings on six continents.

Beebe’s Ruckers Double model is deservedly his most versatile and popular instrument since 2003, and has been commissioned by institutions including Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore (2010); and the Royal Opera House, Muscat, Oman (2011).

The harpsichords built by the Ruckers family from Antwerp in the 17th-century were famous throughout Europe for their clear and precise sound. Highly prized, they were enlarged and updated by French makers in the 18th-century in a process known as ravalement.

This Ruckers Double’s enlarged compass of 56+1 notes GG–d´´´ covers all of Bach's works, and the clarity of tone well suits his contrapuntal style.

The soundboard is decorated by Diana Ford using Australian flora motifs—including the ACT Floral Emblem Wahlenbergia gloriosa—in the style of early Ioannes Ruckers with its characteristic blue scalloped borders and elaborate arabesques. The keywell and soundboard rim are papered in the Flemish tradition, and the mouldings are gilded with 23K gold.

Unlike most harpsichords built today, in this instrument there are no concessions to modern materials: The tapered pearwood jacks have holly tongues sprung by boar bristle, and are quilled with Canada goose.

There are the usual three registers with the standard French disposition of 2 x 8´, 4´, buff, and shove coupler. The front 8´ plays from the upper keyboard, and plucks closest to the nut, producing a reedy, almost nasal tone. The back 8´ plucks a slightly longer set of strings closer to their middle, so sounding more mellow. These unison registers are separated by the 4´ (octave) register. Levers protruding through the nameboard control which of the lower manual set of strings (back 8´ or 4´) are brought into action. The buff stop which mutes the back 8´, is activated by reaching inside the instrument to the left hand knob on the batten.

The imposing seven leg oak table stand is demountable for transport, and incorporates a small drawer for accessories.

When this instrument was commissioned by the ANU School of Music in late 2019, it represented the first harpsichord ordered from a local maker by an Australian tertiary institution in more than fifteen years. It entered the collection of the ANU Keyboard Institute in 2020 as Canberra’s premier concert instrument, replacing the 1985 William Bright French Double Harpsichord which was kindly loaned by Musica Viva and lived at the School of Music from 2005 to 2017.

Pitch: Transposable A392/A415/A440