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State of the Arts 2005 - 14th June - 30th June...featuring the Virtual Vincenzo exhibition at the Exeter Phoenix
New Works for Lost Voices performance May 2004....click on logos for details of these projects

For full PROGRAMME and details on these events please click symbols email us. C.D.s & DVDs of this event now available.

? A few words about the Virtual Vincenzo project
In the mid 1990's, Sound Gallery heard the 1975 Colin Tilney recordings of Scarlatti sonatas on the Vincenzo Sodi harpsichord.
inspired by the voice of the instrument, they went in search of it. The Sodi harpsichord built in 1782, was acquired in the 1930's by the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and after the Decca recordings, it has never been heard until now.
The Vincenzo project is a non-intrusive form of digital restoration which allows the unique voice of this important harpsichord to be heard again, without endangering the instrument itself.
This virtual instrument is in no way designed to rival the original and indeed has its own character and properties. It provides a point of access to this historic keyboard and in part has re-established its identity to prevent it from becoming a silent, albeit handsome, piece of furniture.

In 1975 Decca made a vinyl recording of a collection of Scarlatti's sonatas. These pieces were played on a harpsichord constructed by Vincenzo Sodi in 1782. The Vincenzo Sodi harpsichord is by all accounts one of the most authentic instruments surviving and very much in keeping with the instrument that Scarlatti would have been composing on.

The harpsichord is currently kept in the basement of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter and is not currently on show to the public.

Its unique timbre and vibrant tone were commented on by many. It was a versatile continuo instrument for those who wished to explore composers such as Scarlatti and the music of the late eighteenth century. This instrument represented the epitome of development of the Italian harpsichord with its large and very brilliant tone.

Sound Gallery have digitally recorded all the working notes from the harpsichord. We have now re-created the entire keyboard (or at least an approximation of it) with the aid of the latest computer and MIDI technology. In this way the sampled notes can be transferred to a MIDI controlled master keyboard and then played and heard by the public providing access to this important instrument. This virtual instrument is to be played at the Vincenzo event on the 13th of May as part of the Exeter tEXt festival 2004.

The RAMM have told us that they have plans to create an exhibition space for the harpsichord, with a view to setting up an installation incorporating Sound Gallery's Virtual Vincenzo™. This area will be designed as an interactive musical and educational environment incorporating projected images a virtual harpsichord that can be played along with a 3D model of the instrument and of course the original instrument on display.

We feel that this principal of virtual, non-destructive restoration can be applied to all manner of instruments throughout collections and museums nationally (and Internationally). Sound Gallery is to archive notes from two local virginals built by Charles Rewallin, a Kirkman harpsichord and early pianos amongst other early keyboard instruments nationally and internationally.


Virtual Vincenzo™ - A Re-Creation of Sonic History