Baroque Keyboard Fingering

New eBook: BAROQUE KEYBOARD FINGERING

This is an old-fingering method for students and performers of Baroque keyboards. First written in 1983, it underwent several enhancements and circulated worldwide getting very favourable comments, including an endorsement by Igor Kipnis.

This 5th revised edition, based on three decades of studies and public performance, is as always the most comprehensive work in the field, with 170 fingered passages and a bibliography of sources.

Scales and other passages are resolved with fifty-plus fingering Rules based on examples with original ancient fingerings.
Old fingerings are also suggested for difficult passages in the Baroque repertoire.

See below a published Review and a Preview. Please click on the button below for price details and to buy the book.

[If you bought the book and wish to re-download it, click here for directions].

Most readers of this book are also interested in Baroque music interpretation for the harpsichord and other keyboards.
A full coverage of the matter, easy to follow, with most problems resolved, is available in the latest comprehensive treatise: for more details please visit the website PLAYING THE BAROQUE HARPSICHORD.

The unique opportunity to sponsor this major work is available. This handbook is reaching a wide distribution and readership by students and performers of early keyboard instruments, as well as researchers in the performance of early music. If you are interested in sponsorship, please contact Dr. Di Veroli at .

Contents of BAROQUE KEYBOARD FINGERING: A METHOD

       1. INTRODUCTION — Foreword • Articulation • Position of hands and fingers • Crossing the fingers
       2. DIATONIC SCALES - RIGHT HAND — 16 Rules (*)
       3. DIATONIC SCALES - LEFT HAND — 16 Rules (*)
       4. ORNAMENTED SCALES — 8 Rules (*)
       5. PASSAGES OTHER THAN SCALES — 14 Rules (*)
       6. CATALOGUE OF WORKS FINGERED BY THE AUTHOR
       7. LITERATURE CITED — Ancient literature • Modern literature

(*) After the Rules, every chapter ends with some pages with fingering examples by the author, covering passages
with special difficulties in Baroque keyboard masterpieces.

Important features of the book:

—> A consistent and full reconstruction of the keyboard fingering technique prevalent throughout Europe
        from around mid-17th century till around mid-18th century, i.e. the heyday of the Baroque musical era.
—> The full coverage allows playing with old fingerings even the most difficult pieces of the time, including
        J.S. Bach, who is most likely to have played with ancient fingerings, as shown by extant evidence.
—> A rational organisation of the matter in logically explained and rationally grouped rules.
—> Excerpts from music scores with 170 fingered examples, both ancient and by the author.
—> A method validated by decades of successful public performance, including works such as Bach's
        concertos for harpsichord and strings.

Why an eBook?

The new work can be read on the screen of a PC, Mac or any desktop or portable device capable of showing a document in Adobe Acrobat v.6.0 format or later. It is also formatted for conveniently printing on Letter paper, A4 and even A5 (or 2 A4 pages) for smaller music desks. Benefits of buying an eBook vs a ready-printed volume:
      • PRICE: less than 1/3rd of the equivalent printed volume
      • AVAILABILITY: an eBook is never out of print
      • SECURITY: the reader can make a backup copy, so that the eBook cannot be lost or stolen
      • PRINTING: if a printed volume is really needed, the reader can print it from any home computer
      • COMPACT: the work is laid out in a very tight format: the main chapters with Fingering Rules span 51 pages only which are easy to print as needed
      • PORTABILITY: the reader can carry the book around in a laptop computer or other portable device
      • REFERENCE: the reader interested in a particular topic can quickly search and find all the references to it in the eBook.
      • TIMELINESS: you buy the eBook and receive it on the spot
This new book is a 6Mbyte document file. It downloads in less than 2 minutes using an Internet broadband service. .

Book Review in The British Clavichord Society Newsletter

Excerpts from the review written by the distinguised Dutch harpsichordist and clavichordist Menno van Delft, published in The British Clavichord Society Newsletter, No.44, June 2009:

"Few would disagree, I think, with the notion that fingering is one of the most important technical issues in keyboard playing. Because of its impact on touch and articulation it very practically and directly relates to musical shaping and expression. This publication therefore is a welcome addition to the literature on the topic.
Claudio Di Veroli ... has studied and put into practice early fingering techniques for decades, ... He offers a synthesis of fingering practices of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century, presented in the form of a set of more than fifty rules, divided over five chapters dealing with scales (both plain and ornamented), passages and all kinds of various textures. [Some criticisms follow to a few points, which the author has addressed in a response published in the BCSN, No. 45, Oct. 2009.]
Di Veroli offers a large amount of fingering examples ... and thoroughly examines all kinds of fingering questions. His fifty-plus rules help to pin-point the various principles at work when choosing a fingering. ... this book is a valuable in-depth study ... [T]he book will stimulate the reader to reconsider quite a few important fingering issues and to look at some of the historical information from a different point of view. Di Veroli has made a serious attempt to put into practice what the often confusing and contradicting sources and historical fingering examples suggest. For that he can only be praised!"

BAROQUE KEYBOARD FINGERING: book preview

--- FOREWORD

These last years have witnessed a most welcome tendency to return to the use of ancient techniques for Baroque keyboard playing. These techniques are essential to achieve a stylish performance of Baroque music. The well-known Dutch harpsichordist Ton Koopman wrote that he found "foolish to try and play old organ and harpsichord music using modern techniques. If one regards old fingerings as means of articulation, they appear extremely refined and effective." Unfortunately there are still very few teachers and players using early techniques. One reason is because the lack of systematic rules makes it difficult to finger a piece "à la baroque". Ancient treatises like F. Couperin's and modern methods like Maria Boxall's give many examples, but they alone are simply not enough, apart from being often contradictory. The main difficulties for the modern performer arise in scale passages, which however can be easily fingered and played with ancient techniques, provided we are able to keep in mind the manifold possibilities available.

This method attempts to set down a comprehensive set of Baroque fingering rules ... . I am deeply indebted to Maria Boxall and to Mark Lindley: without their pioneering work in the field this work would not have been possible. Though unpublished, the 1st edition of this work circulated in photocopies and was immediately endorsed by Igor Kipnis and other leading harpsichordists. The present edition has been carefully revised, updated and enlarged ... .

... Baroque fingerings ... for J.S. Bach ... [confirmed by] all the extant fingerings from J.S. Bach's circle. If the reader is reluctant about embarking in ancient techniques fearing he/she will have to go on using modern fingerings anyway for the most difficult Bach works, let me reassure with my personal experience: even if it requires years of practice, the Baroque technique—and its use for all the authors of the time including J.S. Bach—is fully within the reach of the average modern harpsichordist and organist .... even the pinnacle of harpsichord technique—the Goldberg Variations—is perfectly playable with strictly Baroque fingerings ....

--- CROSSING THE FINGERS
... One can broadly define two types of long-finger crossing movements, each one with its own advantages and disadvantages.
• Crossing - More common, best for fast and/or legato or almost legato passages: ...
• Shifting - Less common, best for slow and/or non-legato to staccato passages: ...
The author finds that a flexible approach is best, using either way—and also intermediate ones—according to the particular passage and the articulation desired ... .

--- 2. DIATONIC SCALES - RIGHT HAND
...
--- Rule S - CROSSING OVER THE STRONG BEAT (MAINLY FOR INÉGALES)
... In late Renaissance and early Baroque sources, importance was given to try and finger the scales by placing the 3rd finger on metrically strong notes. ... in mid and late Baroque times ... more often than not the opposite became the norm ... Whenever possible the fingers should cross from a "strong"(long in inégales) to a "weak" note (short in inégales), whereby the player can use the long-note's extra duration to prepare for the crossing. This makes the crossing more comfortable and, in the process, the player obtains a most natural rendering of the inégalité... .

Ex. RS-1. F. Couperin - L'Art de Toucher le Clavecin : "progrès d'octaves"

However, the reader should by no means feel that strong-to-weak crossings were an exclusive French custom. They are clearly prevalent in A. Scarlatti, ... showing that this tendency was present even in authors who wrote only in Italian style, with no inégales ...

--- Rule W - CROSSING OVER THE WEAK BEAT
Baroque musicians were not too rigid about rule S above. They followed it more often than not, but did not hesitate in obviating it whenever it was clearly not convenient, as in ... Les Ondes ....

--- 3. DIATONIC SCALES - LEFT HAND
Beginners find it surprising that, unlike modern technique, Baroque fingering is not symmetrical for the two hands. See the remark by Ferguson in Chapter 1, in the section on HOW TO USE THIS METHOD. We will see now how, in order to compensate for the reduced ability of the left hand, especially the ring and little finger, Baroque authors accepted a significant role of the left thumb in scales. ...

BAROQUE FINGERING METHOD - Errata and addenda

The Baroque Keyboard Fingering eBook is a self-contained work. No additional files are needed to read it, understand it, enjoy it and/or put the advice into practice. Once you have purchased the book however, you can read and/or download its updated Errata and addenda sheet. You are also welcome to visit the website PLAYING THE BAROQUE HARPSICHORD.