After more than 20 years of making harpsichords - it's all I do - I have lost track of a number of them. People move, and now I find that my harpsichords are spread across the continent. Here are a few instruments that I have not lost track of, plus an inside peek at a French Double harpsichord.

French Double for the School of Music, McGill University, Montreal. This instrument is kept at Redpath Hall at McGill. It was an honor to make a harpsichord for this fine school, which already had quite a few harpsichords in its collection. I guess one more didn't hurt. This instrument has an Engleman spruce soundboard which yields a smoewhat brighter tone quality than Sitka spruce soundboards. I now, in 2001, use Engleman spruce almost exclusively. I have to admit that making harpsichord for institutions is somewhat risky for harpsichord makers - not every school has the resources to properly maintain instruments, and even under the best of conditions schools are tough environments for harpsichords.

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As I may have mentioned elswhere, one of the perks of being a harpsichord maker is meeting and working with wonderful and interesting people. Several years ago I made this French double for harpsichordist Cecile Desrosiers of Ottawa. She is a very accomplished harpsichordist and is heard frequently in broadcast recordings on SRC (Societe Radio Canada), the French language arm of the CBC. Her harpsichord is painted with a rather outrageous crimson exterior and "Naples Cream" on the interior; in her home it's a rather loud visual statement, but on stage it's a knockout. This photograph was taken at a broadcast concert in Aylmer, Quebec. This instrument has a standard oak trestle stand, which looks absolutely lovely under the crimson case. Note also the very wide music desk: my large harpsichord generally come with a three-page adjustable music desk. I have never understood why so many harpsichord makers supply skimpy little two-page desks, when so often the harpsichordist needs to have three pages folded out.

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This French Double was made for another wonderful woman who hosts a subscription series of concerts in her large 80-year-old home in Winnipeg. This particular instrument is made of butternut wood, which happens to have about the same specific gravity as basswood, the usual wood employed for French-style instruments. This is her second instrument from my workshop, the first being a Flemish single manual which she still uses regularly. She also has the first of my small clavichords, which she was able to take to Paris as hand luggage on the airplane.

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Even when the soundboard is left unpainted, it still gets a bit of decoration around the rose. The design of my rose is based on a 12th century Byzantine tapestry pattern: opposing griffins, gilded. This is my trademark, and I decided that I did not want to follow in everybody else's footsteps and put in St. Cecilia playing a lyre, a traditional and tired mark.

A look at the insides of a French double in walnut, private ownership. Individuals who have put together kit harpsichords might ask, do I really put the bottom on last? The answer: Sometimes. Depends on the instrument. Examination of drawings of antique French harpsichords has shown that in some cases the bottom had to have been put on after the soundboard was in place. One of the many differences between custom-made harpsichords and kits.