HARPSICHORD DAMPERS
Historic vs. Modern
The harpsichord damper is an item which has been in
plain sight for years, but which seems to have been given little thought
by modern builders and performers as an item to be studied with an “historic”
eye.Indeed, as Dr. Grant O’Brien
points out in his superb book on the Ruckers harpsichord builders, “Virtually
all seventeenth and eighteenth century harpsichords that I have seen with
apparently original jacks have dampers with sloping sides.”1,
yet, “virtually all modern builders use flag dampers with a horizontal
lower surface.”2
Even without the luck of finding original dampers
still in their jacks, there is still evidence enough in the jacks themselves
to indicate the approximate shape of damper originally used.Since
before the string can be damped, the plectrum needs room to move around
and under the string during the jack’s descent, a horizontal damper obviously
need to be placed somewhat above the level of the tip of the plectrum.Historic
jacks, unlike too many current ones, have plectra angled upward 8 -20o
referenced to the jack body’s front.This
significantly raises the tip of the plectrum above the level of its base,
simultaneously raising the level at which a horizontal damper would need
to be set, to perhaps 1/8” (3mm) above the plectrum slot in the tongue.Yet
historic jacks had damper openings which descended at least to the plectrum’s
base, and in many cases up to 1/8” (3mm) below it.Either
the old builders didn’t mind doing a lot of extra hand work for no reason,
or they used dampers that needed to be set lower than our horizontal flag
dampers.
Besides the old dampers found and the evidence in
the jack construction itself, there is still other historical evidence
that the modern flag damper shape was not used historically. Plate XIV
of the “Lutherie” section of Diderot’s Encyclopedie (1751-1778) for example,
clearly shows harpsichord dampers with a curved shape.Yet
this historical evidence has usually been dismissed by modern harpsichord
scholars as an “engraver’s error”, or, because the researcher could see
no reason for this shape and decided they would be difficult to make this
way, has implied that the evidence be ignored!In
fact, the exact shape, crispness and positioning is much less critical
for the historical damper shape than it is for the modern flag damper shape.If
consideration is given to the cloth used, the cutting instruments available
and the frequency of playing at that time it might become rather obvious
why the modern flag damper did not become the historical shape of choice.
The modern damper shape, coupled with the fact that
many current builders use a cloth significantly stiffer than the type used
historically, leaves us in an inauthentic condition that presents problems
which historic players did not experience, takes away sonic possibilities
which they did enjoy, and contributes much to the harpsichord’s reputation
for being “fussy”.
Most people familiar with harpsichords nowadays are
also familiar with the sight of dampers with little notches in them above
the strings, and with dampers which have curled.The
notch is made when the flat, bottom edge of the damper comes down on a
vigorously vibrating string.The
stiffer and more unmoving the cloth, the more concentrated is the area
which has to absorb the string’s energy.When
a damper is set too low in its slot, the jack ends up hanging from the
string by its damper.Depending on
the stiffness of the cloth and the weight of the jack this often results
in the lower corner of the damper curling up as the jack slowly sinks down
to the more solid support of the keylever.Often
this distortion becomes set, so that even when the damper is repositioned
in its slot the damper remains misshapen, making it difficult to adjust
it to damp in both the on and the off positions of the register.
The long-ignored historic damper shape does not encounter
these problems because it does not trap all that energy in a head-on collision,
but deflects and absorbs it through its shape and compliance.The
sloped shape (either slanted in a damper slot or curved as a “mouse ear”
damper in the oval hole of a Rucker’s style jack) contacts the string gradually
in both planes of vibration as it descends, rather than abruptly in only
the vertical direction.This gradual
engagement is particularly helpful with heavy bass strings, and with the
widely moving muselar virginal strings, where the string energy against
a flag damper can either knock the damper out of position or cause the
whole jack to be lifted and rattled in its register mortise.
Where strings are arranged in close pairs, such as
virginals, spinets, and 2x8’s of grands, a sloped shape greatly reduces
the probability of a damper interfering with the motion of a neighboring
string:

A grand harpsichord using modern flag dampers must
have its dampers very carefully adjusted so that they do not interfere
with nearby strings yet all stay on their own strings when the register
is shifted off.If a damper slides
off its string and the jack drops slightly, then when the register is shifted
“on” the leading corner of the damper can catch on its string and cause
resistance to the movement, which can cause a slight springback of the
register when the lever is released by the fingers.This
causes inconsistent plucking across the register.This
is not a problem with the historic damper.The
very slight forward pressure the historic damper does exert on the string
is just enough to ensure the jack will always sit back in its slot for
a consistent start to the pluck.This
is a definite advantage when trying to create a consistent touch where
there is any looseness in the fit of the jacks in their register mortises.
To adjust a flag damper properly, the jack must be
removed from the instrument and the damper moved up or down carefully in
its slot, making sure to maintain the lower edge horizontal, and to not
move the damper in or out to change the relationship to its string and
its neighbors.In contrast, the
historically shaped damper can usually be adjusted with the jack still
in the instrument by grasping the topof
it and tilting its sloping edge closerto
or further from its string.(It takes
significant misadjustment to get it to interfere with a neighboring string.) This
is much quicker than adjusting a flag damper.
When a register of jacks with historic dampers is
shifted off, the dampers lose contact with the strings.This
leaves the strings free to vibrate sympathetically, filling in the abrupt
plucked sound with a sustaining shimmer.The
degree of this depends on the configuration and resonance of the particular
harpsichord.
An undamped 4’ choir will not receive much energy
from the 8’ bridge’s strings, and the extra resonance will be apparent,
but not at all obtrusive to most ears.3This
fact permits the sloped damper shape to be easily used on a 4’ register,
thereby eliminating the micro-adjusting necessary to make sure that the
4’ flag dampers stay on their strings when the register is off and yet
do not interfere with overhead 8’ strings when in the on position.In
fact, the very close string spacing found in most original 18th
century French harpsichords, including treble 4’ strings lying almost directly
under 8’ strings, isstrong evidence
that this sloped shape was the one used, and that there was never any intention
that the 4’ strings be damped when not playing.This
added shimmer would have been part of the normal 8’ sound.To
historic ears, I believe, the 8’ might very well have sounded too “dry”
without it.(Somewhat like the difference
in damping between Viennese and English fortepianos, if you were English
perhaps).
Since, unlike the separated 8’ and 4’ choirs, the
two 8’ choirs share the same bridge, the transfer of vibrating energy
from one playing choir to the other unplaying choir is maximized, and the
sympathetic “haze” can be quite marked.In
a double-manual harpsichord it is quite easy to play whichever 8’ alone
one wishes without disengaging the other 8’.Since
most 20th century harpsichords have not revealed much useful
difference in sound between the 4’ played with the lower 8’ and the 4’
played with the upper 8’4, and since rarely is the 4’ played
solo,5the current performance
practice seems to be not to use the lower 8’ register lever, except possibly
for tuning.It has always seemed
strange to this builder that the French (and others) went to the trouble
to install a register lever easily accessible to the player, in the keywell,
only to have the (modern) players never use it.Aside
from the two possible reasons for the use of the lever alluded to above,
I believe a major reason for its presence is to access the sympathetic
haze available with the historically shaped damper:the
upper 8’ played with an undamped lower 8’.The
effect can be
wonderful, depending on the type of music and the
overall resonance of the instrument.Rapidly
modulating music on a very lively instrument may result in clashing
tonalities, but, wisely chosen, the effect can be a very useful addition
to the resources of the upper manual.The
fact that the historic damper which allows this possibility is also easier
to keep in good regulation and damps better are additional advantages.
A single-manual with two 8’ choirs does not have the
same possibilities of controlling this sympathetic effect as does a double-manual,
which very well may explain 1.) why the Flemish preferred the 1x8’, 1x4’
disposition,6 2.) why the French seemed to have made so relatively
few singles, 3.) why the Italians usually had no convenient way to turn
a register off, and, perhaps 4.) partly why Fleischer preferred using two
sets of jacks on one choir of 8’ strings to get the two 8’ sounds on his
1710 single (see footnote 3).
Plastic jacks, because of their slick surfaces and
a desire to keep horizontal dampers from being knocked out of position
by the strings, usually have damper arms which grip with enough tension
(and/or teeth) that they need a fairly strong, hard cloth for ease of installation.But
these harder cloths with their subsequent notching, curling, and increased
nodal ringing have not helped the harpsichord’s maintenance reputation.
A sloping or curved damper of a relatively hard cloth
will not work as well as one made of a soft cloth.The
softer material will absorb the energy over a larger area of itself by
flexing and twisting around.It is
less critical about being positioned perfectly.Soft
cloth is easily gripped sufficiently by the rough surface of a saw-cut
damper slot in a wooden jack.Its
resiliency makes it less likely, compared to the hard cloth, to have the
string knock it out of position, or form a notch or a curl.
Going forward by going backward
To try the historic damper shape, a flag damper can
be trimmed to a sloping shape and lowered in its slot.If
the results aren’t agreeable, the damper can be turned upside down to return
to the familiar horizontal bottom edge.If
you do like what you find and the damper cloth is a little hard
to get the full benefits of the historic shape, you may want to eventually
cut a new set of dampers with a more resilient cloth.
For spinets and virginals, and grands with only one
set of jacks, switching to the historic damper is really all advantages
with no drawbacks.
The same pretty much applies to single manual grands
with 1x8, 1x4 except for the slight, I believe, possibility that some ears
may refuse to accept the unfamiliar 4’ “haze” on the 8’ solo sound.Try
removing the 4’ jacks first and playing the 8’ to assess the effect for
yourself before starting to modify dampers.
For the usual configuration of double-manuals, changing
the 4’ dampers and the upper 8’ dampers should present no problems (check
the 4’ shimmer effect first, as in the paragraph above, just in case).Whether
you modify the lower 8’ dampers will depend upon how the instrument is
normally used and whether it has a buff stop on the lower 8’.
a.)If
it is not normally used with the lower 8’ turned off then there will be
no problems with modifying the lower 8’ dampers, and an additional timbre
will be gained for the upper manual.
b.)If
the instrument is sometimes registered with the lower 8’ off and
the sympathetic haze might interfere with the sound desired, turning “on”
a lower manual buff stop will essentially stop the sympathetic resonance,
giving additional choices of timbre for with or without.
c.)If
there is no lower 8’ buff to have it both ways, as above, then before converting
the lower 8’ dampers, remove the lower 8’ jacks and try the other registration
possibilities with those strings now undamped.Play
a variety of music.If the shimmer
is just a bit too long or strong try putting back some of the lower 8’
bass jacks with their horizontal dampers, a few at a time, and play some
more.If the sympathetic resonances
do not disturb the registrations which have the lower 8’ off, then go ahead
and modify as many of the lower 8’ dampers as sounds good to you.
(If your double-manual
harpsichord has a buff stop on the upper manual 8’ and you modify the lower
8’ dampers and turn that register off, you will find that the upper 8’
with buff will give a sound much less pizzicato than usual and give a much
better imitation of a lute [“lute stop”], due to the added fill-in resonance
of the lower 8’ strings.)
As mentioned earlier in
the historical context, single-manual grands with 2x8’ seem to present
more of a problem for the historic damper.Horizontal
flag dampers might be the solution to this situation or it might be useful
to have the added haze on just one choir so that the resource to the familiar,
drier sound is still available with the other choir.Remove
each register of jacks alternately and try a variety of music to find out
1.) if you like the effect, and 2.)which
register you prefer dry and which “wet”.As
mentioned above, the effect can be reduced by keeping flag dampers on a
number of the bass jacks.If the
instrument has a buff stop, it would be advantageous to use the sloped
dampers on that same set of strings, as discussed above.
The slope of the damper
can vary depending on the specific conditions, but if the sympathetic shimmer
is an objective then the angle must be at least sufficient to allow the
string full freedom of motion when the register is in the off position.Straight
or
curved cuts may be used:
If, unlike the illustrations,
the plectra in your jacks do not point up, it may take a little more care
to get the shape you need and still intersect the string where it needs
to, but do try.(The jack with a
horizontal plectrum is another 20th century invention which
has given us another set of playing and maintenance problems, but that
is another discussion.)

I believe the historic
damper is a worthy addition to our revival of historic performance practices.Even
if the resulting sympathetic enforcement in grands sounds unusual at first
to some people, at the very least the improvement in harpsichord regulation
and fussiness will be appreciated by everybody involved with the instrument.
1.Grant
O’Brien, Ruckers:a harpsichord
and virginal building tradition.(Cambridge:Cambridge
University Press 1990), p. 222.
2.Ibid.,
p. 223.
3.Listen
to the Handel Suites recorded by Colin Tilney originally on LP, recently
re-released on CD.On Disc 1 he uses
a 1710 Fleischer single which has no dampers on the 4’ at all, so whenever
he plays the 8’ solo, the 4’ strings vibrate sympathetically.(Disc
2 uses a 1728 Zell double).Archiv
Galleria 427 170-2.
4.Which
is not to say there shouldn’t be significant differences of effect.
5.Almost
never, but perhaps something is different about the sound of our 4’, or
our taste.
6.O’Brien,
op. cit., p. 223.
last revised 3-05-01