Harpsichordist Jane Chapman performs both early music and Avante music, including using techniques to use distortion on the harpsichord!
“Many early music people are interested in contemporary music, too, and many composers are also interested in early music instruments because they don’t have the baggage of the [classical and romantic periods]. Increasingly, younger generation composers are finding that the whole weight of the past just isn’t there and look at it afresh, and I’m really interested in how they use the instrument. I like composers to know how Bach uses the instrument but not the tonal language. My ideal, if I’m teaching or performing, is to do some Baroque and some contemporary music because I see it as one continuum. Many of the same techniques [in early music] are employed in contemporary music.”
Adni Spicer, “Jane Chapman Rocks the Harpsichord”, The Wall Street Journal, 3 April 2009.
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A new take on the harpsichord sound
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