William Dowd
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
harpsichord maker and one of the most important pioneers of the historical 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...
movement.
Born in Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
, he studied English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
at Harvard, graduating with AB in 1948. He and his friend Frank Hubbard
Frank Hubbard
Frank Twombly Hubbard was an American harpsichord maker, a pioneer in the revival of historical methods of harpsichord building.-Student days:...
built a clavichord
Clavichord
The 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...
when they were both graduate students; this led to their both deciding to abandon their intended careers as teachers of English and instead to become 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...
builders, basing their methods on historical principles
Historically informed performance
Historically informed performance is an approach in the performance of music and theater. Within this approach, the performance adheres to state-of-the-art knowledge of the aesthetic criteria of the period in which the music or theatre work was conceived...
. They separated for their apprenticeship; Dowd worked at the Detroit workshop of John Challis, who himself had learnt from Arnold Dolmetsch
Arnold Dolmetsch
Arnold Dolmetsch , was a French-born musician and instrument maker who spent much of his working life in England and established an instrument-making workshop in Haslemere, Surrey...
. At this time, Challis was the leading harpsichord builder in the United States.
In autumn 1949 Dowd and Hubbard jointly founded a workshop in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1955, Hubbard had left on research trips around Europe, studying original instruments, while Dowd continued the new builds and restoration of antique instruments. He worked out a standard design based on the harpsichords of Pascal Taskin
Pascal Taskin
----Pascal Joseph Taskin was a French harpsichord and piano maker. Born in Theux, near Liège, he lived most of his life in Paris.- Biography :...
, which was to become much used by professional performers.
Their joint business came to an end in 1958, and Dowd established a workshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
along historical lines, producing around twenty instruments a year until 1988. From 1971 to 1985, there was a workshop in Paris under his name producing a similar number of instruments, which he ran with Reinhard von Nagel. His favoured models were two-manual harpsichords based on the French instruments of Blanchet
Blanchet (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....
and Taskin
Taskin
Taskin may refer to:* Taşkın Aksoy , German-Turkish football manager and former player* Pascal Joseph Taskin , Belgian-French harpsichord and piano maker...
, including 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,...
harpsichords adapted by the grand ravalement process.
Dowd's instruments have long provided the benchmark for reliability in terms of tuning and general stability, cleanliness of construction, and for the influence that they have had on succeeding generations of builders. He was the first builder to seriously consider the eighteenth-century German instruments of Michael Mietke (in contrast to his colleague Hubbard). His instruments were used in performance and recording by such artists as Gustav Leonhardt
Gustav Leonhardt
Gustav Leonhardt is a highly renowned Dutch keyboard player, conductor, musicologist, teacher and editor. Leonhardt has been a leading figure in the movement to perform music on period instruments...
, Isolde Ahlgrimm
Isolde Ahlgrimm
Isolde Ahlgrimm was a Viennese harpsichordist and fortepianist.-Revival of early music:Together with her husband, instrument collector Erich Fiala , Ahlgrimm played a central role in the revival of interest in the use of period instruments for the performance of Baroque and Classical...
, Ralph Kirkpatrick
Ralph Kirkpatrick
Ralph Kirkpatrick was an American musician, musicologist and harpsichordist. He is most famous for his chronological catalog of Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas.-Life and work:...
, Igor Kipnis
Igor Kipnis
Igor Kipnis was a well-known American harpsichordist and pianist.-Biography:Born in Berlin, the son of Russian bass Alexander Kipnis, Igor Kipnis moved to the United States with his family in 1938. He learned the piano with his maternal grandfather, Heniot Levy; attended the Westport School of...
, Bob van Asperen
Bob van Asperen
Bob van Asperen is a harpsichordist, organist, conductor, clavichordist and early music-specialist.After completing a conventional music course at university, in 1967 he studied under the harpsichord master Gustav Leonhardt. In 1968 he joined the group Quadro Hotteterre, of which he was a member...
, and countless others.
He died in Reston, Virginia, in November 2008. http://www.legacy.com/bostonglobe/DeathNotices.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=120859090
Published works
- A Classification System for Ruckers and Couchet Double Harpsichords; in the Journal of the American Musical Instrument SocietyAmerican Musical Instrument SocietyThe American Musical Instrument Society was formed in 1971 "to promote better understanding of all aspects of the history, design, construction, restoration, and usage of musical instruments in all cultures and from all periods"...
(1978) - The Surviving Instruments of the Blanchet Workshop; in The Historical Harpsichord: a Monograph Series in Honor of Frank Hubbard, ed. Howard Schott (Stuyvesant, NY, 1984)
- Haney, H: Portrait of a Builder, The Harpsichord, (1971–2) (about William Dowd)
External links
- A William Dowd harpsichord of 1966 - once owned by Ralph KirkpatrickRalph KirkpatrickRalph Kirkpatrick was an American musician, musicologist and harpsichordist. He is most famous for his chronological catalog of Domenico Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas.-Life and work:...
; restored by Carey BeebeCarey BeebeCarey Beebe, born in Melbourne in 1960, is an Australian harpsichord maker and technician.-Early training and work:After studies at the Sydney Conservatorium where his teachers included Gordon Watson and Robert Goode, Beebe graduated with a music degree as a harpsichord major and three performance...