After having worked for more than 20 years in Holland I moved my workshop to Spain in May 2007. By now I have made almost 350 harpsichords and clavichords, some for institutions (e.g. Royal Conservatory of the Hague, Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht, Prins Claus Conservatorium Groningen, Royal College of Music London, CNR Rennes, Moscow Conservatory, Hochschule für Musik Köln, Liszt Conservatory Budapest, Conservatoire G. Fauré Angoulême, Associaçao pró Música da Póvoa de Varzim Portugal, Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid) others for professional performers (e.g. Trevor Pinnock, Richard Egarr, Siebe Henstra, Pascal Dubreuil, Pieter-Jan Belder, Michael Borgstede, Jacques Ogg, Patrick Ayrton, Alberto Martinez Molina, Diego Ares Groba) and amateur musicians. Many instruments can be heard on CD.

My work is to copy well documented, historically important instruments. I prefer not to redesign them other than adding a transposition possibility and/or some notes.

By copying I mean that I copy the materials and their sizes found in the original as close as possible including the (almost exclusive) use of animal glue, being aware of the fact that my workshop opens up possibilities that the workshops of the builders whose instruments I am copying didn´t have. Even though a hand plane and hand saw can remove a lot of wood with high accuracy, a band saw, a jointer, a planer, a shaper and a wide belt sander are indispensable for my production of about 9 instruments per year.

Nevertheless I learned over the years that power tools can not always replace hand tools; a hand planed jack is smoother than a machined jack, by hand planing a soundboard I have more control and hand cut dovetails are cleaner and more beautiful than routered ones.

Even in well documented instruments important information is missing, here is when I have the freedom to experiment in order to approach the qualities of the sound I hear in the original.

PREFACE