Instrument
harpsichord sheet music
3,813 titles in the index · page 1 of 80
Almost all harpsichord music is also sold as piano music, and most of what is in this catalogue under either heading is the same repertoire. The question is not whether a piano edition will fit on the harpsichord — the notes will — but whether it has been edited in a way that fights the instrument.
The listing below covers solo harpsichord, continuo parts, concerti and method material.
František Kocžwara - 6 Trio Sonatas, Op.5
- Piano
- harpsichord
- bass
Les Clavcinistes Francais du XVIIIe Siecle [Livre 4]
- harpsichord
Les Clavecinistes Francais du XVIIIe Siecle [Livre 4]
- harpsichord
1. Hymnische Musik
- harpsichord
2. Feierliche Einleitung
- harpsichord
3. Klage-Symphonie (Schutz)
- harpsichord
4. Feierlicher Ausklang
- harpsichord
5. Trauermarsch
- harpsichord
6. Leidvolle Musik
- harpsichord
Pavane
- Organ
- Guitar
- harpsichord
Canaries
- harpsichord
- Flute
Forlane
- harpsichord
- Flute
Gavotte
- harpsichord
- Flute
Jugglers, Acrobats, And Showmen, With Bears And Monkeys
- Flute
- harpsichord
La Bandoline
- harpsichord
- Flute
La Douce Et Piquante
- harpsichord
- Flute
La Morinete
- harpsichord
- Flute
La Noble Fierte
- harpsichord
- Flute
Le Rossignol-en-amour
- harpsichord
- Flute
Les Calotins Et Les Calotines
- harpsichord
- Flute
Les Papillons
- harpsichord
- Flute
Les Rozeaux
- harpsichord
- Flute
L'espagnolete
- harpsichord
- Flute
Soeur Monique
- harpsichord
- Flute
Concerto For Amplified Harpsichord And Strings [Nyman, Michael]
- harpsichord
Anakreontika
- harpsichord
- Cello
Jazz Harpsichord Concerto
- harpsichord
- Orchestra
Caliban's Dream (Saariaho)
- Harp
- Guitar
- harpsichord
Jazz Concerto
- harpsichord
Walking Song
- Organ
- harpsichord
- Flute
Gates
- harpsichord
- Cello
- Flute
Lavender
- harpsichord
Rosemary
- harpsichord
Sweet Violet
- harpsichord
Invention No.11
- harpsichord
Phrygian Tucket
- harpsichord
Three Renaissance Dances
- Harp
- harpsichord
- Flute
III Concerti a Cembalo obligato, Violino I:mo, Violino II:do, Alto Viola e Violoncello
- harpsichord
- strings
- Continuo
III Concerti a Cembalo Obligato, Traverso o Violino Concertato, Violino I:mo, Violino II:do, Alto Viola, Violoncello e Basso Ripieno
- harpsichord
- Flute
- strings
Sei Sonata per Cembalo Solo
- harpsichord
Sonata VI in G
- harpsichord
Pieces de Clavessin
- harpsichord
6 Trio Sonatas, Op.1
- harpsichord
- Cello
- Continuo
Edward Jones - Sex Romancer af B. S. Ingemann
- Piano
- Harp
- harpsichord
Twelve Sonatinas or Easy Lessons for the Harpsichord, Chiefly intended for the Improvement of Young Practitioners, Composed in verious Styles
- harpsichord
Dances 1773-74
- harpsichord
- Flute
- Oboe
Dances 1780-81
- harpsichord
- Flute
- Oboe
Dances 1782-84
- harpsichord
- Cello
- Flute
Buying guide
What to know before you buy
What a piano edition adds that you do not want
The harpsichord cannot vary its volume by touch. Dynamic markings added by a nineteenth-century editor are therefore instructions you cannot follow, and the phrasing they imply is achieved instead through articulation and timing.
Pedal markings are worse than useless — there is no sustain pedal. And fingering in older piano editions assumes a thumb-under technique developed for a heavier action.
None of this makes a piano edition unusable, but it does mean an urtext is a genuinely better purchase here than for most repertoire: it gives you the text without the wrong instructions.
Ornaments are the substance
French harpsichord composers in particular — Couperin, Rameau, d'Anglebert — wrote ornament tables explaining their own symbols, and editions that reproduce them are the ones worth having. An edition that silently modernises the ornaments is giving you a different piece.
Continuo
A great deal of Baroque music needs a harpsichordist to play from a figured bass — a bass line with numbers rather than written-out notes. Editions vary in whether they print a realisation. If you do not read figures, check before buying, because a scholarly edition may give you the bass line and nothing else.
Common questions
- Can I play piano sheet music on the harpsichord?
- The notes transfer, but dynamics and pedal markings in piano editions cannot be executed on a harpsichord. An urtext gives you the text without instructions the instrument cannot follow.
- What is a continuo realisation?
- A written-out keyboard part derived from a figured bass line. Practical editions usually include one; scholarly editions often print the figures alone.
- Is harpsichord music free?
- The repertoire is out of copyright and widely available at no cost. Modern editions sell on their ornament tables, their continuo realisations and a clean page — all three of which matter more here than in most repertoire.