I set up my work shop in Boston after graduating from Brandeis in 1976. I had made two harpsichords by that time, and thought I knew how to do everything on my own. Through a very painful self-education, I eventually learned how to be a competent cabinet maker, historical researcher, and business man.

The exquisite decorations on my instruments were executed by my wife, Barbara Pixton, who eventually became a full-time professional artist after painting these instruments as a sideline.

By the time I had made eighteen harpsichords, in 1983, I realized that my skills as a businessman were more marketable in the real world than the harpsichord world, which, I discovered in the 1980's, was rapidly becoming a make-believe world, populated by self-aggrandizing dilletantes.

1978 Flemish double

I made a few of these two-manual harpsichords, loosely based on Hugh's 1642 Ruckers. I made a recording of Elizabethan music in 1977 on one of them, and toured the country with some more, eventually selling two of them. The third one, I eventually decided was not worthy, and cut it up into pieces and threw it in a dumpster in 1980.

The range was GG-BB-d''', with two split sharps on the lowest C# and D#. This was a very effective configuration, and allowed this model to serve me in a numerous full-length recitals. I started to realize that the only reason I was making harpsichords was so that I would always have new interesting instruments to play in my concerts. I frankly detested the idea of selling them, and was even more horrified at the idea of these instruments being out in the world, where people would not be taking proper care of them, or, worse, playing badly on them.

1979 17th-century French-style double

I built this 17th-century French-style instrument in 1979, all out of quartered sitka spruce. It was totally hypothetical, my own design based very loosely on a few pictures of later 17-the century French harpsichords, which were then considered very exotic and physically a hybrid between Italian and Flemish instruments. This instrument became known as the "Spruce Goose." I had so much fun making it, as I was trying to be creative and risky, focussing mostly on how much fun I would have playing it when it was done.

I had been very inspired by the creative and philosophical approach to instrument making of Grand Rapids, Michigan harpsichord maker Keith Hill, whose instruments were starting to pop up all over the midwest then. Keith's instruments were technically crude, and often ridiculous looking, but musically outstanding, historically daring, and refreshingly iconclastic, as was Keith himself. This was my best instrument to that date. I subsequently sold it, sight unseen, to an artist and fantasy science-fiction devotee in rural Delaware. It fit right in to his music room, which was draped in plush dark red velvet, and filled with statues, carvings, and art work of alien beings, mythical dragons, and fantasy figures.

1980 18th-century Flemish-style concert double

Continuing my acoustic and historical experimentation, I built this large two-manual instrument in 1980. While it resembled a late 18th-century instrument of Dulcken, it had properties of both Italian and early French instruemnts, and had a percussive yet sweet exotic sound. It also was very stable, had a wide range (FFF-g''') and extra wide key spacing, and was my instrument of choice for concert tours and recordings I did in the early 1980s.

Hendrik Broekman of the Hubbard shop in Boston nicknamed this instrument "Grimaldi-Dulcken," observing that it bore strong characteristics of both those historical makers. I thought this was a very apt name. I made an all-Bach recording on this harpsichord in 1980 that I thought was the best harpsichord recording I had ever done.

18th-century Blanchet-style concert double, 1982-1984

In 1983, I developed a Blanchet-type French double, incorporating some of my experimental designs with a more conventional approach towards a historical sound that also would be resonant and robust enough to fill modern concert halls. This model, of which I eventually made four, was extremely successful, both musically and physically.

The range of these instruments was FF-g''' plus transposing up to modern pitch, with conventional French registration. One of the highlights of my concert career was playing the deFalla harpsichord concerto with the Richmond, Virginia, Symphony, on one of these harpsichords, with specially-commissioned decoration.

I decided that if I didn't get lots of new commissions after carting this prototype all over the eastern US in 1982 and 1983, and after hearing Alan Curtis playing a dazzling recital on it in 1983 in Madison, that I would quit making harpsichords altogether. I didn't, so I did.

1984 Pedal Harpsichord

My last instrument was a pedal harpsichord, something I had dreamed about for years. These instruments were rumored to have existed in the time of Bach, although there are no surviving examples. I was very inspired by one made by Keith Hill, and I finished this on in 1983, and played a few recitals on it. It was magnificent, but also totally impractical. After I made this instrument, which was exquisitely detailed and worked like a Swiss watch, I figured there was no longer any reason to indulge my fantasies. I closed the shop and pursued a career in the graphic arts industry.

1978 Flemish double | 1979 17th-century French-style double | 1980 18th-century Flemish-style concert double
| 18th-century Blanchet-style concert double, 1982-1984 | 1984 Pedal Harpsichord

Gallery I, Historical Instruments | Gallery II, Pixton Instruments

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