Ralph Kirkpatrick (June 10, 1911–April 13, 1984) was a musician, musicologist and
harpsichordA harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
ist, born in
Leominster, MassachusettsLeominster is a city in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 41,303 at the 2000 census. Leominster is located north of Worcester and west of Boston. Both Route 2 and Route 12 pass through Leominster. Interstate 190, Route 13, and Route 117 all have starting/ending...
.
Kirkpatrick studied Art History at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
and went on to further studies with
Nadia BoulangerNadia Boulanger was an influential French composer, conductor, and music professor. An outstanding music educator at the highest level, she taught many of the most important composers and conductors of the 20th century.-Ancestors:Nadia Boulanger was born to a highly musical family. Her...
and harpsichord revival pioneer
Wanda LandowskaWanda Landowska was a Polish harpsichordist whose performances, teaching, recordings and writings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century...
in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, as well as
Arnold Dolmetsch Arnold Dolmetsch , was a French-born musician and instrument maker who spent much of his working life in England and established an instrument-making workshop in Haslemere, Surrey...
in
HaslemereHaslemere is a town in Surrey, England, close to the border with both Hampshire and West Sussex. The major road between London and Portsmouth, the A3, lies to the west, and a branch of the River Wey to the south...
,
Heinz TiessenRichard Gustav Heinz Tiessen was a German composer.-Biography:Tiessen studied with composer Erwin Kroll in Königsberg before moving to Berlin. There, he enrolled at Humboldt University and at the Stern'sches Konservatorium, where he studied composition and music theory...
in
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
and
Günther RaminGünther Werner Hans Ramín was an influential German organist, conductor, composer and pedagogue in the first half of the 20th century....
in
LeipzigLeipzig is, with a population of 515,459, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany.-Origins:Leipzig's name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means "settlement where the lime trees stand"....
. From 1933 to 1934, he taught at the Mozarteum in
Salzburg' is the fourth-largest city in Austria and the capital of the federal state of Salzburg. Salzburg's "Old Town" with its world famous baroque architecture is one of the best-preserved city centres north of the Alps, and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The city is noted for its...
,
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
. A Guggenheim Scholarship later enabled him to study manuscripts and sources in Europe.
From 1940 he was a professor at
Yale UniversityYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
, where he published his biography of
Domenico ScarlattiGiuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style...
and a critical edition of Scarlatti's complete works (1953).
Ralph Kirkpatrick (June 10, 1911–April 13, 1984) was a musician, musicologist and
harpsichordA harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
ist, born in
Leominster, MassachusettsLeominster is a city in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 41,303 at the 2000 census. Leominster is located north of Worcester and west of Boston. Both Route 2 and Route 12 pass through Leominster. Interstate 190, Route 13, and Route 117 all have starting/ending...
.
Life and work
Kirkpatrick studied Art History at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
and went on to further studies with
Nadia BoulangerNadia Boulanger was an influential French composer, conductor, and music professor. An outstanding music educator at the highest level, she taught many of the most important composers and conductors of the 20th century.-Ancestors:Nadia Boulanger was born to a highly musical family. Her...
and harpsichord revival pioneer
Wanda LandowskaWanda Landowska was a Polish harpsichordist whose performances, teaching, recordings and writings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century...
in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, as well as
Arnold Dolmetsch Arnold Dolmetsch , was a French-born musician and instrument maker who spent much of his working life in England and established an instrument-making workshop in Haslemere, Surrey...
in
HaslemereHaslemere is a town in Surrey, England, close to the border with both Hampshire and West Sussex. The major road between London and Portsmouth, the A3, lies to the west, and a branch of the River Wey to the south...
,
Heinz TiessenRichard Gustav Heinz Tiessen was a German composer.-Biography:Tiessen studied with composer Erwin Kroll in Königsberg before moving to Berlin. There, he enrolled at Humboldt University and at the Stern'sches Konservatorium, where he studied composition and music theory...
in
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
and
Günther RaminGünther Werner Hans Ramín was an influential German organist, conductor, composer and pedagogue in the first half of the 20th century....
in
LeipzigLeipzig is, with a population of 515,459, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany.-Origins:Leipzig's name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means "settlement where the lime trees stand"....
. From 1933 to 1934, he taught at the Mozarteum in
Salzburg' is the fourth-largest city in Austria and the capital of the federal state of Salzburg. Salzburg's "Old Town" with its world famous baroque architecture is one of the best-preserved city centres north of the Alps, and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The city is noted for its...
,
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
. A Guggenheim Scholarship later enabled him to study manuscripts and sources in Europe.
From 1940 he was a professor at
Yale UniversityYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
, where he published his biography of
Domenico ScarlattiGiuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style...
and a critical edition of Scarlatti's complete works (1953). These are now conventionally designated by their
Kirkpatrick numbers (shown as Kk. --, and more recently with a single K.), which is now considered the standard, authoritative numbering system for Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas (despite at least two rival systems) (see
opus numberOpus , from the Latin word opus meaning "work", is usually used in the sense of "a work of art".The Latin plural of opus, "opera", is used to refer to the genre of music drama Opus (plural opera or opuses), from the Latin word opus meaning "work", is usually used in the sense of "a work of art".The...
).
Kirkpatrick made a number of recordings of the harpsichord works of Bach (Archive recordings). He also produced an edition of Bach's
Goldberg VariationsThe Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, are a set of an aria and 30 variations for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach. First published in 1741 as the fourth in a series Bach called Clavier-Übung, "keyboard practice", the work is considered to be one of the most important examples of variation form...
(1938, G. Schirmer, Inc. New York - 37149) which includes extensive discussion of ornamentation, fingering, phrasing, tempo, dynamics, and general interpretation. He also authored the posthumous
Interpreting Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier: A Performer's Discourse.
Kirkpatrick also played modern music, including
Quincy PorterQuincy Porter was an American composer and teacher of classical music.Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he went to Yale University where his teachers included Horatio Parker and David Stanley Smith. Porter received two awards while studying music at Yale: the Osborne Prize for Fugue, and the...
's Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra,
Darius MilhaudDarius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six - also known as the Groupe des Six - and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century...
's Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord, and the Double Concerto for Harpsichord, Piano and Chamber Orchestra by
Elliott CarterElliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
, which was dedicated to him.
As a performer and recording artist, he became best known for his
harpsichordA harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
performances of the keyboard music of
Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and organist whose ecclesiastical and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
and
Domenico ScarlattiGiuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style...
. He also recorded on the
clavichordThe clavichord is a European stringed keyboard instrument known from the late Medieval, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was widely used as a practice instrument and as an aid to composition. The clavichord produces sound by striking brass or iron strings with...
(e.g. Bach's two- and three-part inventions) and on the
fortepianoFortepiano designates the early version of the piano, from its invention by the Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori around 1700 up to the early 19th century.-Construction:...
(especially works by Mozart).
Ralph Kirkpatrick died in
Guilford, ConnecticutGuilford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, that borders Madison, Branford, North Branford and Durham, and is situated on I-95 and the coast. The population was 21,398 at the 2000 census...
at the age of 72.
External links
Ralph Kirkpatrick: A Bibliography and Discography
- echambermusic.net - A table of all Scarlatti's keyboard works. To find a work (or a group of works) - sort a column by the available information such as catalog # (Longo, Kirkpatrick or Pestelli) or an attribute (e.g. key, time signature). Then, it is also possible to find the corresponding unknown items of that work.