Russell Collection of Early
Keyboard Instruments

HD5-JG1763.29: Double-manual harpsichord,
Jean Goermans/Pascal Taskin. Paris, 1763/83-84.

Programme Notes

This harpsichord is not actually signed by Jean Goermans, although it is dated 1764. However, the construction and soundboard painting style are all typical of the instruments made by Goermans during the period around 1764. Taskin signed the instrument twice "Refait par Pascal Taskin a Paris" once with the date 1783 and again with the date 1784.

The 1764 instrument by Jean Goermans was originally built with the classic French disposition having two 8' and one 4' stops on the lower manual and one 8' stop on the upper manual, all using quill plectra. The disposition of the Goermans harpsichord was then later altered by Taskin in 1783/84 by adding to the lower manual an extra row of 8' jacks quilled in soft peau-de-buffle leather plectra, and by adding a knee-lever or genouillère mechanism to the instrument to change the registration. This allowed the registers to be turned on and off without lifting the hands from the keyboards, and also allowed a gradual 'swell' effect whereby the delicate sound of the peau de buffle all on its own could be increased gradually one register at a time to the full 2x8',1x4' in quill and then brought back again to the single peau de buffle. Hence the added genouillère both increases the tonal contrasts available from the harpsichord and produces a kind of loud and soft at a time when it was in fierce competition with the new-fangled fortepiano.

Jean Goermans was the founder of a family, originally of Flemish origin, of harpsichord and piano builders. He came to Paris and lived on the rue de la Verrerie, the same street where Pascal Taskin was living and working for Blanchet. Goermans had at least seven children and suffered extreme financial hardship as a result of the expenses of their education. Some of these children became musicians and some, in turn, became stringed keyboard instrument builders.

Pascal Taskin was certainly one of the finest harpsichord builders of all times. Taskin was born sometime between 1723 and 1729 in Theux in the Province of Liege, now a part of Belgium. From Theux he came to work in Paris in the atelier of François-Étienne Blanchet II. After the death of Blanchet in April 1766, he became a journeyman (maître) harpsichord builder, married Blanchet's widow, and took over Blanchet's workshop in the Rue de la Verrerie. He was the court harpsichord builder to both Louis XV and Louis XVI, and he died at Versailles in February, 1793. His instruments span the period in which the piano became popular and, at the time of his death, there were equal numbers of pianos and harpsichords under construction in his workshop.

At the time that Taskin and Goermans were working in Paris, harpsichords by the Ruckers and Couchet, built over a century earlier in Antwerp, were being altered and updated to given them a contemporary compass and disposition. These altered harpsichords sold for prices 10 times or more than those of the locally-produced new instruments. In such a financial climate, much counterfeiting and faking of Ruckers and Couchet instruments occurred. In the case of the 1764 instrument Taskin obliterated Goermans' signature from the instrument, altered Goermans' rose to look like the rose of Ioannes Couchet, stained the soundboard dark brown to try to make it look as old as a Couchet, and probably sold it off as a Couchet instrument at a great profit. Pascal the Rascal! This deception was not discovered until after the instrument came to the Russell Collection.

The Goermans harpsichord of 1764 has a delicate and sophisticated sound, and has a very even and balanced tone across the whole range of the instrument. Despite its nefarious history it is one of the finest harpsichords in any collection in the world. In his dictionary Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord, 1440-1840 Donald Boalch says of this harpsichord "This is the finest harpsichord I have ever played"!

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