Larry Palmer ‘The Harpsichord now and then, works by Bach, Busoni, Howells, Martinu, Rossi, Shackelford’.
Released 1975 by the Musical Heritage Society MHS 3222
Two instruments, both belonging to Larry Palmer, were used for this recording:
a 1968 two·manual harpsichord by William Dowd of Boston, based on an eighteenth-century instrument by Blanchet (8x8x4; buff on the upper 8′, peau de buffie on the lower 8′; registers operated by pedals) .
For the Rossi Toccata a one-manual instrument in the Italian style, built in 1972 by Richard Kingston of Dallas based on the 1665 harpsichord by Giacomo Ridolfi, now in the Smithsonian Institution this harpsichord has two 8′ registers operated by hand-stops.
Recording Engineer: Roy Cherryhomes
A Musical Heritage Society recording produced under the supervision of James Rich
Recorded at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Dallas, Texas
Cover .Illustration: Gerald Schultz
Editions: Busoni : Breitkopf & Haertel, Howells: Oxford Union Press Martinu : Editions Max Eschig, Shackelford: MS
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 75-750477

Side 1:
00:00 1. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Toccata in E Minor, BWV 914
06:37 2. Michelangelo Rossi (c. 1633-1670) Toccata Terza
10:45 3. Johann Sebastian Bach Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 894

Side 2*:
23:05 1. Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) Sonatina (ad usum infantis) pro clavicembalo composita (1916)
31:16 2. Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959) Sonate pour clavecin (1958)
39:17 3. Rudy Shackelford (b. 1944) Le Tombeau de Stravinsky (1971)
4. Herbert Howells (b. 1892) From Lambert’s Clavichord (1927):
43:20 De la Mare’s Pavane
46:04 Hughes’ Ballet.

* In the twentieth-century pieces an occasional noise may be noticed: it is that of the pedal-operated stop mechanisms. Rapid register changes by the use of pedals were not possible to the classic harpsichord composers, but It has been expected by most twentieth-century writers because of the nearly-universal use of pedal mechanisms on harpsichords built during this century. In the early works changes of register or color occur only at logical points in the music where they would have been possible with the handstops such as were found on early instruments.

LARRY PALMER teaches harpsichord and organ in the Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University, and is organist.
Choirmaster of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Dallas; he has served as editor of the harpsichord pages for THE DIAPASON (Chicago) since 1969. Educated at Oberlin Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music (from which he holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree) he has studied harpsichord with Isolde Ahlgrimm and Gustav Leonhardt.

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