[Angel logo]
PETER  BAVINGTON
Clavichord Maker in London 1987–2020

WORKSHOP CLOSURE

This workshop closed in July 2020. I can no longer make instruments or sell supplies, but this web-site remains live; all existing reference material and links will be maintained and extra items will be added from time to time. If anyone needs help or advice about an instrument made by me, please contact me by e-mail.

NEWS

I’ve just passed my 85th birthday. A long life has many advantages, but one of the inevitable consequences is that contemporaries, one by one, pass away. I am particularly sad to lose my colleague Lance Whitehead to prostate cancer at the age of 62. He was a good friend, and his contribution to the study of musical instruments is unmatched. It began with his 1994 doctoral thesis on the clavichords of the Hass family – a masterpiece of meticulous research, lucidly and entertainingly presented: it is still available online at the Edinburgh University Research Archive. In the years that followed he was the author, generally with his wife Jenny Nex, of numerous articles and papers on keyboard instruments. For many years he was editor of the Galpin Society Journal, and since 2020 he has revised nearly all the instrument-maker biographies for the online research resource Boalch-Mould Online, and contributed numerous front-page blogs for the same website. Lance was at various times a music teacher, organist, and published composer of music for wind ensembles. I shall miss him terribly.

I have already reported the death in March of Alastair Laurence. He was well known as a piano designer and maker, and latterly the owner and managing director of the Broadwood firm; he was also the author of two books about the London Piano industry (Five London Piano Makers and More London Piano Makers) which are still in print and can be obtained from Keyword Press. He was also a proud Yorkshireman, and the author of several books on local history – and a renowned Jazz pianist.

 

CONTENTS

 (scroll down to see the complete list)

ESSAYS ON CLAVICHORD SUBJECTS

The following informal essays on clavichord subjects appeared originally in the blog ‘Workshop News’:

RESEARCH DOCUMENTS

This section contains lists and other documents which will be of interest mainly to those doing research into keyboard instruments, particularly the clavichord.

Please feel free to print out or download any of these documents. I would be particularly grateful for additions, corrections or comments.

ESSAYS ON OTHER SUBJECTS

VIDEOS

This link will take you to a performance by Julian Perkins of Handel’s lovely Air in G minor, HWV 467, played in the composer’s London bedroom on a small clavichord made by Peter Bavington in 2016.

Here you can hear Timothy Roberts playing Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in D minor, K 9, on an ‘Iberian’ clavichord made by Peter Bavington in 2001.

This link is to a performance by Richard Smith of J. J. Froberger’s Lament for Ferdinando IV, FbWV 612, played on a fretted clavichord after Bodechtel made by Peter Bavington in 2008.

 

SOME CONTEMPORARY CLAVICHORD PLAYERS:

SOME OTHER INTERESTING WEB-SITES:

 

BIOGRAPHY

PETER BAVINGTON was born in 1941 and educated at William Ellis School, London and Exeter University. After working for many years as a Civil Servant, he decided in 1982 on a complete change of career and enrolled at the London College of Furniture (now part of London Metropolitan University), where he studied early keyboard instruments under Lewis Jones. In 1985 he obtained his Higher National Diploma in Musical Instrument Technology with distinction in every unit.

He then spent two years working with John Rawson before founding his own London workshop, making and restoring harpsichords, clavichords and fortepianos. In addition to individual musicians, his customers included the Royal Academy of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the Hochschule der Künste Berlin.

Peter retired from instrument making in 2020. He continues to undertake research into all aspects of clavichords and other musical instruments, and is the author of numerous articles (click here for list) and the book Clavichord Tuning and Maintenance, now in its third edition. He was a founder member and past Chairman of the British Clavichord Society (now disbanded). In 2020 he received the Anthony Baines Memorial Prize, which is awarded annually for an outstanding contribution to organology, the study of musical instruments.

[Return to Contents]

last update 6 February 2024