The new instruments, which included a variety of registers allowing the player to modify sound colour, offered a wide expressive range to composers and performers alike. Where did these registers originate? How were they used, and what tone colours did they bring to musical works? The Harmoniques International Congress will address these questions and many others during its fourth assembly, entitled “Registers and Colours at the Dawn of the Romantic Era”, which will take place in the magnificent galleries of the Lausanne Music Conservatory from 4 to 6 April 2008. 

Participants at the congress will have the opportunity to see and hear dulcimers, pantalons and tangent pianos, as well as to compare later instruments of the Viennese and English schools. As in previous years, the congress will bring together musicians, musicologists and museum curators as well as instrument builders and restorers. The event, which boasts five sections, will include concerts, lectures, exhibitions, master classes and introductory programmes in addition to demonstrations for young audiences.

Papers will be given in German, English and French. On Friday 4 April, for instance, lecture topics include “Die frühen Tafelklaviere in Süddeutschland” by Michael Günther, Homburg am Main; “Les pianoforte à marteaux de bois dur” by Jean-Claude Battault Musée de la Musique, Paris; and “The Tangentenflügel, a present state of knowledge” by Giovanni Paolo Di Stefano, Palermo. Demonstrations of all the early keyboards gathered for the event will be presented by instrument builders Christopher Clarke and Thomas Steiner.

Concerts will include a recital by Andreas Staier (works by Clementi and Schubert on an English and a Viennese piano) and Miklós Spányi’s performance of pieces by C. P. E. Bach, Haydn and Beethoven on a tangent piano on 4 April; a comparative concert (music by Steibelt, Hummel and Dussek played on square pianos) given by Nicole Hostettler and Pierre Goy on 5 April; and on 6 April, a programme entitled “Timbres and colours of the 18th century” presented by Aline Zylberajch on the tangent piano and Margit Ubellacker on the dulcimer (works by C. P. E. Bach, Chiesa, Mozart and Eberlin). The complete programme of events is available at www.harmoniques.ch