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| Early Keyboard Journal | |
|---|---|
| Title | Early Keyboard Journal |
| Discipline | Musicology |
| Abbreviation | EKJ |
| Publisher | Harpsichord and Fortepiano Society |
| Country | United States |
| History | 1963–present |
| Frequency | Annual |
| Issn | 0012-0000 |
Early Keyboard Journal is an annual peer-reviewed periodical dedicated to scholarship on keyboard instruments, repertoires, performance practice, organology, and source studies relating to the harpsichord, clavichord, fortepiano, spinet, virginal, and related instruments. The journal serves as a nexus for researchers, performers, instrument makers, librarians, and conservators associated with collections, museums, and conservatories. It is produced by an organization with roots in American and European early music movements and has chronicled developments in historical performance, instrument restoration, and archival discovery.
The journal was established in the early 1960s by founders associated with organizations such as the Harpsichord Society (United States), scholars linked to the Royal Musical Association, curators from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and performers active in the Early Music Movement. Founding editors drew upon networks of contributors from institutions including the Smithsonian Institution, the New England Conservatory, and the Royal College of Music to define the journal's remit. Early volumes reflected collaboration with instrument makers from workshops connected to figures like Frank Hubbard, conservators at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and collectors represented by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Peabody Conservatory. The journal's creation paralleled international developments such as conferences at the International Musicological Society and exhibitions at the Princeton University Art Museum that foregrounded historical keyboards.
The editorial policy emphasizes primary-source studies, facsimile editions, technical reports, and critical editions related to keyboard repertoire and construction. Typical topics include manuscript and print studies involving composers tied to the Baroque period such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, and François Couperin; Classical- and early Romantic-era figures like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Muzio Clementi; and Renaissance keyboard repertoire connected with names such as William Byrd, Girolamo Frescobaldi, and Orlando Gibbons. Organological articles frequently reference instrument builders such as Bartolomeo Cristofori, Sébastien Érard, and Gottfried Silbermann, as well as workshop traditions in cities like Florence, Paris, London, and Leipzig. The scope also encompasses performance practice reflections by performers affiliated with institutions like the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Conservatoire de Paris.
Published annually, the journal combines long-form articles, technical appendices, plate illustrations, and photographic documentation produced in collaboration with museums such as the Musée de la Musique and libraries including the British Library and the Library of Congress. Back issues are distributed to subscribers via academic channels including university presses and specialist societies, with availability at libraries like the Harvard College Library, the Bodleian Libraries, and the New York Public Library. Print runs have varied; special volumes have accompanied symposia at venues such as the Getty Center, the Royal Albert Hall, and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. The editorial board has included members from the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and the Juilliard School, reflecting ties to conservatories and research universities.
Contributors have included prominent scholars, performers, and instrument makers: musicologists such as Gustav Leonhardt, Seymour de Ricci-adjacent researchers, and more recent authors affiliated with the Universität Leipzig and the University of California, Berkeley. Landmark articles have presented rediscoveries of sources related to Frescobaldi and Byrd, technical reconstructions of early pianos by references to Cristofori designs, and critical commentary on editions of works by Haydn, C.P.E. Bach, and Scarlatti. Instrument-focused pieces have documented restorations carried out by workshops influenced by William Dowd, Martin Skowroneck, and Andrew Fountaine, and case studies from collections at the Musée Instrumental and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. Reviews in the journal have covered influential recordings by ensembles associated with the Academy of Ancient Music and soloists from the Moscow Conservatory.
Scholars and performers credit the journal with shaping discourse on historical keyboard technique, organological methodology, and source editing standards adopted in university curricula at institutions such as the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and the Curtis Institute of Music. Citations appear in monographs published by presses like the Oxford University Press, the Cambridge University Press, and the University of California Press. The journal has influenced instrument-making practice featured in exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and policy for collections at museums like the Hunt Museum. Critical reception across reviews in periodicals connected to the American Musicological Society and the International Association of Music Libraries has generally emphasized its role as a specialist venue for rigorous, source-based work.
Indexes for the journal are maintained in union catalogs and bibliographies used by researchers at the Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale and databases curated by the Biblioteca Nacional de España and the German National Library. Archival access to back issues exists in institutional repositories at the University of Michigan Library, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the National Library of Australia. Some articles have been cited in digital projects hosted by the International Music Score Library Project and linked in finding aids at archives such as the Bryn Mawr College Special Collections. Preservation initiatives have involved collaboration with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to ensure long-term access.
Category:Music journals Category:Instrumentology