Bachelor's Degree in Harpsichord
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Programme Structure and Credits
NB: the discussion within the department concerning a new curriculum structure will soon be concluded, and relevant information should be available at the beginning of the academic year.
Subsidiary subjects specific to the principal study
1. Basso continuo
The course consists of weekly lessons for 3.5 years. The continuo teachers are Thérèse de Goede and Menno van Delft. Continuo lessons are also given by the harpsichord principal study teachers (Bob van Asperen and Menno van Delft) in the second and third academic years. In the fourth year, the student will choose a teacher.
In the first year, a foundation is laid by means of early eighteenth-century primers. In the middle and at the end of the first year, examinations will be held. In the second and third year, the students will take a course in treatises taught by Thérèse de Goede in which the development of Italian and French continuo-playing will be discussed on the basis of sources from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in addition to the practically oriented continuo lessons. An examination will be held at the end of the year for both courses.
In the fourth year, the emphasis will be on ensemble playing and the role of basso continuo in this regard. The final examination will take place in January or February.
2. 'The Harpsichord: Construction, History, Repertoire, Performance Practice'
Teacher, Menno van Delft.
This two-year course consists of four components:
- repertoire and performance practice (the history of harpsichord music and of the most important sources and schools)
- score- and tablature-reading (practical skills, old clefs, Italian and French keyboard tablature, North German organ tablature)
- construction and history (technical principles, development of the instrument, national schools)
- tuning and maintenance (various practical skills for tending to the instrument on a daily basis)
Required for students taking methodology; optional for all other harpsichord students.
3. Instrumental subsidiary subjects (optional): organ, clavichord, modern harpsichord
- Organ in the first year (second and third term).
- Required introductory course on the clavichord required in the second year (one term) - teacher, Menno van Delft - and a required introductory course on the modern harpsichord; teacher, Annelie de Man
- To complete their third- and fourth-year 'free space' electives, students can choose from the selection of these instrumental subsidiary subjects.
Modern harpsichord
Teacher, Annelie de Man
In the first year, students are required to take the 'Introduction to the Modern Repertoire' course. For six weeks during the first term, students will be given an overview of repertoire and schools of playing.
In the second year, a practically oriented introduction to the modern repertoire will follow. For six weeks during the second term, students will receive intensive guidance in learning repertoire to be chosen jointly.
Master of Music in Modern Harpsichord
Clavichord
Teacher, Menno van Delft
1. Subsidiary subject: within the curriculum of the principal study of harpsichord, the subsidiary subject of clavichord is optional, namely as a 'free space' elective. Students studying organ, piano and pianoforte may also take clavichord as a subsidiary subject.
2. Master's degree programme
