Pascal Taskin
Encyclopedia
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Pascal Joseph Taskin (1723 – 1793) was a French harpsichord
and piano
maker. Born in Theux
, near Liège
, he lived most of his life in Paris
.
in Paris, though little is known of his activity until the death of François Étienne Blanchet II in 1766, when he married his widow and joined the guild
as a master instrument-maker, taking over the supervision of the Blanchet workshop.
The continuity between the Blanchet and Taskin traditions is indicated by the note Taskin attached to his new instruments:
Taskin inherited Blanchet's title of facteur des clavessins du Roi
, and became keeper of the King
’s instruments when Christophe Chiquelier retired in 1774. He set up a workshop in Versailles
with his nephew Pascal Joseph Taskin II (1750–1829) in 1777 in order to carry out the latter role; his other nephews Henry Taskin and Lambert Taskin also worked for him, though little is known of them. Pascal Joseph II went on to work in the Blanchet workshop in 1763 and, like his uncle, married into the family in 1777 with his wedding to François Etienne Blanchet II's daughter. Pascal Taskin was succeeded after his death in 1793 by his former master's son, Armand François Nicolas Blanchet, whom he had brought up himself.
harpsichord
-making tradition. He is credited with introducing genouillères (knee
-levers) with which to control the stop combinations, and a new register of jacks using peau de buffle (soft buff leather
) plectra
, instead of the usual quill
, in 1768.
He continued the common French practise, pursued successfully by Blanchet, of making ravalements of Ruckers
and Couchet
harpsichords, which involved rebuilding the 17th century Flemish
instruments, which were highly valued for their sound quality, to suit the modern French tastes. Like other makers of the time, he resorted to selling 'Ruckers' harpsichords which had very few original parts, or none at all, such was the premium associated with the name by then; his last known instrument, a double dated 1788, has a rose signed "Andreas Ruckers" and a Flemish-style painted soundboard
. Unlike other makers, his instruments were always of excellent quality, whether passed off as Ruckers or not.
He began to build fortepiano
s with Blanchet in the 1760s, probably originally modelled after those of Gottfried Silbermann
, with a Bartolomeo Cristofori
-type action. None of his early pianos survives; the earliest date from the late 1780s and have a very simple action without escapement, which he devised in order to reduce friction
. These instruments have luxuriant veneer
ing of the Louis XVI
style. Another instrument he made was the Armandine, a large psaltery
with gut strings
resembling a harpsichord without a keyboard
, in 1790 for Anne-Aimée Armand (1774–1846); a surviving example is in the Musée de la Musique, Paris. Taskin's workshop became more occupied with piano production and the importing of English square piano
s in the 1770s and 1780s, but not to the detriment of harpsichords; his death inventory of 1793 shows an equal number of each instrument under construction.
There are seven of his double manual harpsichords still in existence; they are prime examples of the late French school of harpsichord building, with a warm and rich tone, range ofFF–f, and disposition of 8' 8' 4' and buff stop. His 1769 double and the 1763/1783–1784 Goermans
/Taskin (which Taskin tried to pass off as a Couchet
by filing away the initials 'JG' to 'IC') have both been praised as ideal instruments for the late French baroque
repertoire such as the works of Rameau
and Armand-Louis Couperin
. The Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments
houses a 1770 double. These instruments have been studied and copied many times by modern makers.
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
and piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
maker. Born in Theux
Theux
Theux is a Walloon municipality of Belgium in Province of Liege. On 1 January 2006 the municipality had 11,571 inhabitants. The total area is 83.36 km², giving a population density of 139 inhabitants per km².-World War 2:...
, near Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
, he lived most of his life in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Biography
Pascal Taskin worked in the workshop of the Blanchet familyBlanchet (harpsichord makers)
The Blanchet family were French harpsichord-makers from the late-17th century to the mid-19th century, by which time they had become piano makers....
in Paris, though little is known of his activity until the death of François Étienne Blanchet II in 1766, when he married his widow and joined the guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
as a master instrument-maker, taking over the supervision of the Blanchet workshop.
The continuity between the Blanchet and Taskin traditions is indicated by the note Taskin attached to his new instruments:
de Clavessins & Garde des Instruments de Musique du Roi, Eleve & Succes- seur de m. blanchet, demeure Même Maison, rue de la Verrerie, vis-à-vis la petite porte de S. Merry, a. paris |
|---|
Taskin inherited Blanchet's title of facteur des clavessins du Roi
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
, and became keeper of the King
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
’s instruments when Christophe Chiquelier retired in 1774. He set up a workshop in Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
with his nephew Pascal Joseph Taskin II (1750–1829) in 1777 in order to carry out the latter role; his other nephews Henry Taskin and Lambert Taskin also worked for him, though little is known of them. Pascal Joseph II went on to work in the Blanchet workshop in 1763 and, like his uncle, married into the family in 1777 with his wedding to François Etienne Blanchet II's daughter. Pascal Taskin was succeeded after his death in 1793 by his former master's son, Armand François Nicolas Blanchet, whom he had brought up himself.
His harpsichords and pianos
Pascal Taskin built on and refined the already excellent BlanchetBlanchet (harpsichord makers)
The Blanchet family were French harpsichord-makers from the late-17th century to the mid-19th century, by which time they had become piano makers....
harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
-making tradition. He is credited with introducing genouillères (knee
Knee
The knee joint joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two articulations: one between the fibula and tibia, and one between the femur and patella. It is the largest joint in the human body and is very complicated. The knee is a mobile trocho-ginglymus , which permits flexion and extension as...
-levers) with which to control the stop combinations, and a new register of jacks using peau de buffle (soft buff leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
) plectra
Plectrum
A plectrum is a small flat tool used to pluck or strum a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick, and is a separate tool held in the player's hand...
, instead of the usual quill
Quill
A quill pen is a writing implement made from a flight feather of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, metal-nibbed pens, the fountain pen, and, eventually, the ballpoint pen...
, in 1768.
He continued the common French practise, pursued successfully by Blanchet, of making ravalements of Ruckers
Ruckers
The Ruckers family were Flemish harpsichord and virginal makers based in Antwerp in the 16th and 17th century whose influence stretched well into the 18th and to the harpsichord revival of the 20th.The Ruckers family contributed immeasurably to the harpsichord's technical development,...
and Couchet
Couchet
The Couchet family were Flemish harpsichord and virginal makers in Antwerp, closely associated with, and descendants of, the Ruckers family....
harpsichords, which involved rebuilding the 17th century Flemish
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
instruments, which were highly valued for their sound quality, to suit the modern French tastes. Like other makers of the time, he resorted to selling 'Ruckers' harpsichords which had very few original parts, or none at all, such was the premium associated with the name by then; his last known instrument, a double dated 1788, has a rose signed "Andreas Ruckers" and a Flemish-style painted soundboard
Sounding board
A sound board, or soundboard, is the surface of a string instrument that the strings vibrate against, usually via some sort of bridge. The resonant properties of the sound board and the interior of the instrument greatly increase loudness over the string alone.The sound board operates by the...
. Unlike other makers, his instruments were always of excellent quality, whether passed off as Ruckers or not.
He began to build fortepiano
Fortepiano
Fortepiano designates the early version of the piano, from its invention by the Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori around 1700 up to the early 19th century. It was the instrument for which Haydn, Mozart, and the early Beethoven wrote their piano music...
s with Blanchet in the 1760s, probably originally modelled after those of Gottfried Silbermann
Gottfried Silbermann
Gottfried Silbermann was an influential German constructor of keyboard instruments. He built harpsichords, clavichords, organs, and fortepianos; his modern reputation rests mainly on the latter two.-Life:...
, with a Bartolomeo Cristofori
Bartolomeo Cristofori
Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco was an Italian maker of musical instruments, generally regarded as the inventor of the piano.-Life:...
-type action. None of his early pianos survives; the earliest date from the late 1780s and have a very simple action without escapement, which he devised in order to reduce friction
Friction
Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and/or material elements sliding against each other. There are several types of friction:...
. These instruments have luxuriant veneer
Wood veneer
In woodworking, veneer refers to thin slices of wood, usually thinner than 3 mm , that are typically glued onto core panels to produce flat panels such as doors, tops and panels for cabinets, parquet floors and parts of furniture. They are also used in marquetry...
ing of the Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
style. Another instrument he made was the Armandine, a large psaltery
Psaltery
A psaltery is a stringed musical instrument of the harp or the zither family. The psaltery of Ancient Greece dates from at least 2800 BC, when it was a harp-like instrument...
with gut strings
Catgut
Catgut is a type of cord that is prepared from the natural fibre found in the walls of animal intestines. Usually sheep or goat intestines are used, but it is occasionally made from the intestines of cattle, hogs, horses, mules, or donkeys.-Etymology:...
resembling a harpsichord without a keyboard
Musical keyboard
A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument, particularly the piano. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the...
, in 1790 for Anne-Aimée Armand (1774–1846); a surviving example is in the Musée de la Musique, Paris. Taskin's workshop became more occupied with piano production and the importing of English square piano
Square piano
The square piano is a piano that has horizontal strings arranged diagonally across the rectangular case above the hammers and with the keyboard set in the long side. It is variously attributed to Silbermann and Frederici and was improved by Petzold and Babcock...
s in the 1770s and 1780s, but not to the detriment of harpsichords; his death inventory of 1793 shows an equal number of each instrument under construction.
There are seven of his double manual harpsichords still in existence; they are prime examples of the late French school of harpsichord building, with a warm and rich tone, range of
Goermans
The Goermans family were French harpsichord makers of Flemish origin.Jean Germain I was born in Geldern, the Netherlands, and is known to have been working as a harpsichord maker in Paris by 1730, where he remained for the rest of his life...
/Taskin (which Taskin tried to pass off as a Couchet
Couchet
The Couchet family were Flemish harpsichord and virginal makers in Antwerp, closely associated with, and descendants of, the Ruckers family....
by filing away the initials 'JG' to 'IC') have both been praised as ideal instruments for the late French baroque
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
repertoire such as the works of Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François...
and Armand-Louis Couperin
Armand-Louis Couperin
Armand-Louis Couperin was a French composer, organist, and harpsichordist of the late Baroque and early Classical periods. He was a member of the Couperin family of musicians, of which the most notable were his great uncle Louis and his cousin François.- Biography :Couperin was born in Paris...
. The Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments
Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments
The Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments is a museum at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The collection of musical instruments was established in 1900 by the gift of historic keyboard instruments by Morris Steinert and later enriched in 1960 and 1962 by gifts from the Skinner...
houses a 1770 double. These instruments have been studied and copied many times by modern makers.
Further reading
- John Koster: Two Early French Grand Pianos, Early Keyboard Journal, xii (1994)
- William DowdWilliam DowdWilliam Richmond Dowd was an American harpsichord maker and one of the most important pioneers of the historical harpsichord movement....
: The Surviving Instruments of the Blanchet Workshop, The Historical Harpsichord: a Monograph Series in Honor of Frank Hubbard, i, ed. Howard Schott (Stuyvesant, NY, 1984) - Donald H. Boalch: Makers of the Harpsichord and ClavichordClavichordThe clavichord is a European stringed keyboard instrument known from the late Medieval, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was widely used as a practice instrument and as an aid to composition, not being loud enough for larger performances. The clavichord produces...
1440–1840 (Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, ASIN: 019318429X; 3rd edition, 1995) - Frank HubbardFrank HubbardFrank Twombly Hubbard was an American harpsichord maker, a pioneer in the revival of historical methods of harpsichord building.-Student days:...
: Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making (Harvard University PressHarvard University PressHarvard University Press is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. Its current director is William P...
, 1965) - Andreas Beurmann: Historische Tasteninstrumente: Cembali, Spinette, Virginale, Clavichorde. Die Sammlung Andreas und Heikedine Beurmann im Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (Prestel, Munich/London/New York, 2000)
External links
- Double-manual harpsichord, Pascal Taskin. Paris, 1769 — in the Russell Collection, EdinburghEdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
- Double-manual harpsichord, Jean Goermans/Pascal Taskin. Paris, 1763/1783–1784 — in the Russell Collection, Edinburgh
- PASCAL THE RASCAL!! — information about how Taskin altered the GoermansGoermansThe Goermans family were French harpsichord makers of Flemish origin.Jean Germain I was born in Geldern, the Netherlands, and is known to have been working as a harpsichord maker in Paris by 1730, where he remained for the rest of his life...
to make it look like a CouchetCouchetThe Couchet family were Flemish harpsichord and virginal makers in Antwerp, closely associated with, and descendants of, the Ruckers family....