Ravalement

Ravalement (French: plastering ) is a term from musical instrument construction and describes a structural change to expand the range and number of registers on harpsichords .

The bass wall and treble cheek were removed and replaced, the soundboard retained, but widened and lengthened; the hollow side was also lengthened and raised when a second manual was added . The sound post has been removed and replaced, as has the original manual, stops and knobs .

The best known are the reworking of Ruckers and Couchet embellas by the Parisian harpsichord makers Blanchet and Taskin from the 1760s onwards. The newly acquired harpsichords were very popular and valuable.

literature

• Raymond Russell: The Harpsichord and Clavichord. 2nd ed. Faber and Faber, London 1973.