Saale Fischer says composers are giving the harpsichord new life

Estonian composers are rediscovering the harpsichord, giving the instrument a second life after its popularity faded following the French Revolution, harpsichordist Saale Fischer told ERR.

Speaking in the “Musician and Instrument” segment of the culture programme “OP”, Fischer said the harpsichord’s first heyday was during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. After the 1789 revolution, it became associated with the old social order and fell out of fashion. “When the French Revolution was over and the bourgeois order came in, these instruments were literally and figuratively thrown out of windows as something outdated and out of fashion,” she said.

Today, composers are writing music for the harpsichord again. Fischer named Estonian composers Elis Hallik, Kirke Karja, Mingo Rajandi and Märt-Matis Lill as examples. She said the instrument is sometimes considered a predecessor of the piano, but the two have little in common beyond their keys.

Fischer also recalled a difficult episode from her career. A few years ago, while she was living between Estonia and Germany, she kept her harpsichord with friends in Tallinn’s Old Town. One day, as a young girl was practising, the ceiling collapsed onto the instrument. The player was unharmed, but plaster struck the soundboard and left the harpsichord completely unplayable.

Because the instrument was not hers, Fischer said she could not simply throw it away. A harpsichord maker in Estonia agreed to restore it, and a Facebook fundraiser collected the necessary money within 24 hours. The restoration took another four years. The instrument is now playable again and has gone to another young musician.