Daniel Mantey - 'Estampie' - (THE OLDEST keyboard piece ever, ca.1360. On clavichord. Wild!!!)

'Estampie' - Petrone, ca. 1360 - Edited, and performed by Daniel Mantey - Music All Sorts; clavichord.

This was my first recording on clavichord, my studio was JUST set up back in 2006-ish, and this was my first go. I found this recording in my file archives, and had almost forgotten about it, but found it, and put it on. AND, this was the warm-up demo, to see how the mics sounded, and levels, etc. I luckily saved it, as all the real takes just had nothing of the whatever that this has. It is completely un-edited. Not perfect, but a very honest performance. I have since sold this clavichord, so this is it. (The clavichord SEEN in the video, is NOT the clavichord HEARD in the video...)

The piece: It dates from the mid-14th century, ca. 1360, found in England, though of French origin, and has 'Petrone' written atop the manuscript. HOWEVER, the writing is not clear, and others think it says 'retrove?' Petrone might be the composer's name (as I think!) and Retrove might be a sort of instructive title, indicating that one needs to keep returning to the opening section (which one must)?

The piece neatly fits the style of the Medieval estampie dance form, and so is often entitled 'estampie,' as I also do. It is from a few pages of organ (?) tablature, referred to as the Robertsbridge Codex, though I cannot remember much else. Do your Google search (after you listen?). And we sort of guess it as for organ. It really fits the keyboard well, though not sure if they were still fist-pounding the keys back then, or had already designed the more finger-friendly keyboards? (Google!) AND, many of us DO BELIEVE that they were already making and playing clavichords by this time, though we can only guess and surmise from scant historical evidence. Carvings of angels playing little clavichords started to appear in churches beginning around 1400, and an instrument named the 'checker' is mentioned from around 1350, which might have been an early form and name of the very new keyboard instrument?

I think that Petrone, around 1360, wrote this VERY cool piece of music for organ, and wrote it, and practiced it on his (her?) little clavichord, which organ-builders were making alongside the organs, and were since always used by organists to practice on at home! So, I play it on clavichord! BUT... I am playing it on a huge 1806-style 5-1/2 octave Swedish clavichord modeled after the instruments of Lindholm, built by Andrew Lagerquist in 2000. (Since sold.) AND... the clavichord pictured in the video is a yet different clavichord, copied after a mid-17th century design, built by Paul Irvin in 1996 (eventually for sale!).

Petrone would have had a tiny wooden box of an instrument, probably just over 2 feet long, and with maybe 3+ octaves worth of notes, that would have sounded an octave higher than notated. My huge clavichord actually is only different from what Petrone might have played in size and scope, but the mechanics and hardware would have been similar enough, that it would not have sounded too different (though I am playing it an octave lower than Petrone would have). And I did use Pythagorian tuning, which Pertone would have certainly used! All this music history! And we can usually only guess.

Isn't the piece great!!! If Jimi Hendrix would have played this on his strat, no one would have ever blinked, meaning of course that they would have thought it was just another of his cool, wild, new musical creations. I did get a photo-copy of a micro-film of the original score, and did do my own 'edition,' and did leave out two entire sections, which I simply do not like as much as the rest of the piece, and feel slow down the great momentum that this shorter version has. What else...oh, this is one of the very first pieces I recorded in my studio back in late 2005/early 2006.. And, as mentioned above, THIS was my trial warm-up run-through, to see if I had all the levels and things set. I did record it a bunch more times, but was not able to again capture the abandon and rapture that this unconcerned throw-away warm-up had. And good thing I did NOT throw it away!

Clavichords are noisy, and so you can hear lots of action and release noises. And this is a rather 'noisy' clavichord (very presential, and TONS of natural reverb!!!)! Petrone's might have had a good bit of sound as well? Crank it! Paul Irvin built what might be the most beautful clavichord in the universe, so I wanted to show off some of it's cherry case-work at the start, AND now you can see how a clavichord opens? 14th-century 'stamp & 'stomp! (Get it?)