39: Terraced dynamics

We should, at some point, discuss dynamics in Baroque music written for keyboards. This, ultimately, leads us to a discussion of how Baroque keyboards were built, and how those methods of construction differ from modern ones.

The harpsichord was, other than the organ (which almost all existed in the town parish church), the keyboard instrument of choice of the era, and it, together with the cello (and/or the double bass—so named because it doubles the bassline provided by the harpsichord and/or cello, an octave lower) was responsible for the lowest harmonic voice, often simply rendered in figured bass notation as we discussed in a previous article.

There’s a key distinction between harpsichords and pianos that both led to the later invention of the piano compared to the harpsichord, and to the eventual replacement of the older instrument by the newer one as the de facto keyboard. Harpsichords use little hooks to pluck at strings to produce sound, whereas pianos use felt-tipped hammers to strike them. You can vary dynamics on a piano continuously because the amount of force you apply to a key directly correlates to the pressure with which the hammer strikes the strings—push a key harder to play louder, and the hammer will fall with more force, creating the louder sound. (Do the opposite—less force on the key means less force by the hammer—to play softer.)

Harpsichords, meanwhile, exist in a binary because of the plucking, rather than striking mechanism; either you pluck, or you don’t. Harpsichords had levers that controlled—in a binary sense—how this plucking took place. If the lever was in a certain position, the plucker plucked both of the 2 strings tuned to the requested pitch, creating a louder sound. If the lever was in another position, the plucker was shifted in such a way that it only caught one of the two strings. This is how you vary dynamics on a harpsichord—by changing the position of the lever.

The piano now has something similar, in addition to the fact that force determines loudness. One of the pedals below a piano also has this shifting effect, whereby instead of striking both strings that correspond to a pitch with the hammer (with more or less force, potentially amplifying this pedal’s effect), you can shift the hammer over so that it only strikes one.

The fact that the piano has continuous variability in dynamics was one of the main reasons the piano eventually obliterated the popularity of the harpsichord. So how did harpsichordists create contrast in dynamics? Usually by employing what we call “terraced” dynamics”. Rather than crescendoing or decrescendoing, the harpsichordist would play something with the lever in the 2-string position, then flip it to the 1-string position, or vice versa. Therefore, there would be discrete jumps in the dynamics, say, of an original phrase and its echo, rather than smooth changes. Because there are these distinct levels of volume—like the distinct steps on a terrace, say, built for the cultivation of rice on the side of a hill—we call this technique of switching immediately between loud and soft or vice versa, especially in a Baroque context, “terraced dynamics.” This technique was seen as particularly expressive in the keyboard tradition of the day, and is one of the key reasons why keyboard music of the period can be so dramatic.

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