Jacob Hochbrucker

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Jacob Hochbrucker (1673 – 28 March 1783)[1] was an eighteenth-century luthier and musician credited with the invention of the single-action pedal harp popularized in Europe between 1729 and 1750 by his descendants, and particularly by the Dauphine, Marie Antoinette, who performed on it after her arrival in Paris in 1770.[2]

Life and work

Hochbrucker was born in Augsburg. From 1699 he lived and worked in Donauwörth, where he also built lutes and violas.[3] Around 1720 Hochbrucker invented the pedal mechanism to play the harp, adding to the instrument five (later increased to seven) pedals and connecting them to the hooks for the C, D, F, G, and B strings, thus allowing the player to alter the strings sound of a semitone and greatly extend the range of the instrument for the extraction of sounds. This ingenious chromatic system later became the subject matter of studies and extended considerations.

In the second half of the 18th century, the Hochbrucker mechanism was largely popularized by the efforts of his nephews, Christian and Celestine Hochbrucker, and mainly by son Simon, who toured around Europe playing in Vienna in 1729, Leipzig, Brussels in 1734, Paris in 1740 and north Germany.[3] At the beginning of the 19th century Sébastien Érard constructed in Paris the "harpe à double mouvement", patented in 1810,[4] finally changing so the course of that which Hochbrucker had successfully developed.

See also

Literature

References

  1. ↑ NDB. "Hochbrucker (Hochprugger), Jacob". Deutsche Bibliographie. Retrieved 11 August 2011. 
  2. ↑ Jackson, Roland John (2005). Performance practice: a dictionary-guide for musicians. Routledge. p. 180. ISBN 0-415-94139-3. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Sadie, Julie Anne (1998). Companion to Baroque Music. University of California Press. p. 241. ISBN 0-520-21414-5. 
  4. ↑ Heidi, Tims (2007). Felix Godefroid's role in the development of modern harp virtuosity as exemplified by selected solo compositions. The University of Arizona. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-549-23193-6. 
Attribution
  • This article is based on the translation of the corresponding article of the Russian Wikipedia. A list of contributors can be found there at the History section.


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