This study examines the sense of amazement provoked by an encounter with a singular historical instrument and seeks to articulate the mechanisms underlying that experience, demonstrating how close engagement with such objects can deepen our understanding of eighteenth-century musical practice. It begins by analysing the psychological and embodied response to playing the 1737 harpsichord by Antoine Vater – an instrument largely unknown in modern scholarship prior to this investigation –and proceeds to examine the intellectual process of accounting for its seemingly ethereal qualities through detailed organological study. Drawing on original organological research and also the work of the instrument-restorer, collector, and researcher Michael Thomas, it will bridge subjective observations on the sounding qualities of this instrument and empirical organological analyses. In doing so, it aims to understand what such an object may teach us about the level of workmanship and musical sensitivity of eighteenth-century builders and players, and how we may harness their wisdom as musicians today. keywords: harpsichord, historically informed performance, organology, Clavecin
Tetsu Isaji (Tue,) studied this question.