THE FIELDS OF BACH (6)(scherzando)

Here is a stormy scene from Bosch, the battle of the instruments.

In this arena streaked with lightning the harpsichord and piano

duke it out in the Klavier Katzenjammer. Odds favor the champ,

Hamburg Steinway, over the contender, a replica after an

instrument by von Dulcken (1611), by 257 to 1, but you've gotta hand it to

the little cembalo, he's a contender. At stake is the soul of the

Well-Tempered Clavier, seen in the form of Flosshilde,

the German Jeanne D'arc, on a cloud above with the Holy Family( or the Royal

Family, depending on your view of iconography.) A skirmish, meanwhile,

has erupted among the Highland symphonists, who favor

bagpipes, and the Flemish sacbucketeers in a force which sweeps up the gambists and

the tympanists in one hellacious sea as Hamborg Steinway delivers yet another deadly blow

to van Dulkens plectrum. There is a splintering of parquetry as van Dulken spews

a handful of quills from his sounding board. It will be a long time before his

toccatta trots,again, it's Les Barricades Mistereuses for original instruments...