At last summer's Berkeley Early Music Festival and Exhibition, I showed a new double-manual harpsichord after the 1728 Christian Zell. In announcing its appearance, I took the opportunity to say a little about its inception and construction.

I am now intending to use this space to keep a less formal log of new and recent projects, but for now a brief overview of the "Zell" project might be of interest.

The "Zell" project was in some ways a logical extension of my work with large Italian harpsichords, but at the same time an exploration of a new level of sheer scale. This is a very large and massive instrument, and yet the logic of its construction, like that of so many German harpsichords, is closely related to that of Italian work:

The instrument was beautifully decorated by San Francisco artist Adrian Card. Adrian did both the soundboard and case paintings in an Art Nouveau style, and yet kept a very strong "feel" for more traditional period decorative styles. The painting fits beautifully with the dark walnut of the inner surfaces, and the keyboards of natural (casein) faux ivory and tortoiseshell: