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(Franz Hermann) Martin Skowroneck (21 December 1926, Berlin – 14 May 2014, Bremen)〔()〕 was a German harpsichord builder, one of the pioneers of the modern movement of harpsichord construction on historical principles. ==Life and career== He completed his secondary education in 1947,〔Schott, n.d.〕 then embarked on musical training at the Musikschule in Bremen, from which he received his diploma in 1950 as a teacher of flute and recorder. During his student years, he had begun to make his own recorders, as he was dissatisfied with existing instruments.〔Schott, n.d.〕 He then began making recorders for other players.〔Schott, n.d.〕 In 1952, he was asked to restore a clavichord that had been badly damaged in the war; this led him to build his own clavichord, then instruments for other people.〔Schott, n.d.〕 His first harpsichord dates from 1953.〔Schott, n.d.〕 Skowroneck had no formal training as a builder; he learned his craft instead by inspecting existing instruments. At first these were modern, ahistorical instruments, but he soon developed a strong interest in the instruments of the historical period, leading him to study (among others) the harpsichords kept in the musical instrument museum of Berlin.〔Schott, n.d.〕 He also studied historical documents shedding light on how the old instruments were built. Skowroneck did his pioneering studies at much the same time that in America, the builders Frank Hubbard and William Dowd were doing comparable work, but he was unaware of their studies and his accomplishment was quite independent.〔Schott, n.d.〕 Harpsichord scholar Edward Kottick describes Skowroneck's work as follows: (instruments ) were built uncompromisingly in the mode of the antiques, with practically no concessions to modernity. His cases were made of plank wood, with classical case framing; he used wood, rather than brass or plastic for his upper and lower guides, and like the antiques, his jacks had no adjustment screws; his keyboards were light and of harpsichord proportions, and he rejected the use of pedals. Skowroneck, in other words, immersed himself in the building practices of the antiques and did his best to emulate them. He succeeded brilliantly.〔Kottick (2003:444)〕 Skowroneck soon achieved a strong reputation, notably in becoming the builder of the favorite instrument of the celebrated harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt. He worked alone and always produced instruments rather slowly. Eventually, the demand for his instruments far outstripped the rate at which he could produce them. The harpsichordist Ketil Haugsand describes thus how he obtained his own Skowroneck harpsichord: In 1970 I visited ... Skowroneck and begged him to put me on his long waiting list, which he did. I waited 17 years – and it was worth every day I waited - and finally took delivery of the harpsichord in 1986.〔Source: blog of Pamela Hickman, ().〕 Skowroneck's work was not without opposition, for Germany was the center of the then-dominant industry of factory-built ahistorical harpsichords.〔For extended discussion see the final two chapters of Kottick (2003).〕 Schotte and Elste (n.d., sec. 5) observe, in Germany it was specially difficult for the traditional type of instrument to gain a foothold. In no other country had the modern type of harpsichord become so firmly established. Every concert hall and radio station had acquired or had ready access to a modern instrument, invariably a large two-manual harpsichord with the ‘Bach’ disposition.〔This is: 16 foot and 8 foot stop on the lower manual, 8 foot and 4 foot on the upper; observed on no authentic historical instrument and widespread among instruments of the ahistorical 20th-century school; see Hubbard (1965:184, 331-333).〕 Conservatory teaching was based on this standard concert model. Performers and public alike had grown used to it. Skowroneck also argued for his approach to harpsichord building in print, for instance in Skowroneck (1974), cited below. According to Kottick, "His words fell on mostly deaf ears."〔Kottick (2003:521)〕 However, Schott (n.d.) notes at least some degree of success for Skowroneck's approach in his native country: "it is partly due to () influence and those of like-minded German harpsichord makers as Klaus Ahrend and Rainer Schütze, that German harpsichordists have turned increasingly to reproductions of historical instruments for the performance of early keyboard music."〔Schott, n.d.〕 As of July 2012, the then 85-year-old Skowroneck was still building harpsichords.〔Source: interview by Pamela Hickman with Skowroneck's son Tilman, posted on her blog at ()〕 He died May 14, 2014, in Bremen.〔Source: Note by Tilman Skowroneck, posted on his blog at ().〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Martin Skowroneck」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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