# Pascal Taskin > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Pascal_Taskin > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Pascal_Taskin.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_Taskin > Source revision: 1316717593 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Belgium-born French harpsichord and piano maker This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Pascal Taskin" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message) See also: [Taskin](/source/Taskin) [Andreas Ruckers](/source/Ruckers) 1646 / Taskin 1780 harpsichord, (Paris, [Musée de la Musique](/source/Mus%C3%A9e_de_la_Musique)) **Pascal-Joseph Taskin** (27 July 1723 – 9 February 1793) was a [Holy Roman Empire](/source/Holy_Roman_Empire)-born French [harpsichord](/source/Harpsichord) and [piano](/source/Piano) maker. ## Biography Pascal Taskin, born in [Theux](/source/Theux) near [Liège](/source/Li%C3%A8ge), worked in [Paris](/source/Paris) for most of his life. Upon his arrival in Paris, he apprenticed in the workshop of [François-Étienne Blanchet II](/source/Blanchet_(harpsichord_makers)). Little else is known of his activity until Blanchet's death on April 27, 1766. In early November of that year, he became a master harpsichord maker in the [guild](/source/Guild) of instrument makers and took over the Blanchet workshop, and by the end of that month, he had married Blanchet's widow. The continuity between the Blanchet and Taskin traditions is indicated by the note Taskin attached to his instruments until 1770: - PASCAL TASKIN, Facteur de clavessins du Roi, Élève et successeur de M. BLANCHET, demeure même Maison rue de la Verrerie, vis-à-vis la petite porte de S. Merry A PARIS Taskin inherited Blanchet's title of royal harpsichord maker (*facteur des clavessins du Roi*) and additionally became keeper of King [Louis XV](/source/Louis_XV)’s instruments alongside [Christophe Chiquelier](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christophe_Chiquelier&action=edit&redlink=1) in 1770, though he only fully occupied that role when Chiquelier retired in 1774, the year of [Louis XVI](/source/Louis_XVI)'s ascension. In order to carry out both of his duties as both a maker and keeper of musical instruments, he set up a workshop in [Versailles](/source/Versailles_(city)) in 1777 and hired his nephew, [Pascal-Joseph Taskin II](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pascal-Joseph_Taskin_II&action=edit&redlink=1) (1750–1829), to work there; his other nephews Henry Taskin and Lambert Taskin also worked for him, though little is known of them. Pascal Joseph II went on to work in the Blanchet workshop in 1763 and, like his uncle, married into the family in 1777 with his wedding to François Etienne Blanchet II's daughter. After his death in 1793, Pascal Taskin was succeeded by his stepson, Armand-François-Nicolas Blanchet, whom he had brought up himself. ## Harpsichords and pianos Pascal Taskin built on and refined the already excellent [Blanchet](/source/Blanchet_(harpsichord_makers)) [harpsichord](/source/Harpsichord)-making tradition. He is credited with introducing *genouillères* ([knee](/source/Knee)-levers) with which to control the stop combinations, and a new register of jacks using *peau de buffle* (soft buff [leather](/source/Leather)) [plectra](/source/Plectrum), instead of the usual [quill](/source/Quill), in 1768. He continued the common French practice, pursued successfully by Blanchet, of making *ravalements* of [Ruckers](/source/Ruckers) and [Couchet](/source/Couchet) harpsichords, which involved rebuilding the 17th century [Flemish](/source/Flanders) instruments, which were highly valued for their sound quality, to suit the modern French tastes. Like other makers of the time, he resorted to selling 'Ruckers' harpsichords which had very few original parts, or none at all, such was the premium associated with the name by then; his last known instrument, a double dated 1788, has a rose signed "Andreas Ruckers" and a Flemish-style painted [soundboard](/source/Sounding_board). Unlike other makers, his instruments were always of excellent quality, whether passed off as Ruckers or not. He began to build [fortepianos](/source/Fortepiano) with Blanchet in the 1760s, probably originally modelled after those of [Gottfried Silbermann](/source/Gottfried_Silbermann), with a [Bartolomeo Cristofori](/source/Bartolomeo_Cristofori)-type action. None of his early pianos survives; the earliest date from the late 1780s and have a very simple action without escapement, which he devised in order to reduce [friction](/source/Friction). These instruments have luxuriant [veneering](/source/Wood_veneer) of the [Louis XVI style](/source/Louis_XVI_style). Another instrument he made was the *Armandine*, a large [psaltery](/source/Psaltery) with [gut strings](/source/Catgut) resembling a harpsichord without a [keyboard](/source/Musical_keyboard), in 1790 for Anne-Aimée Armand (1774–1846); a surviving example is in the [Musée de la Musique](/source/Mus%C3%A9e_de_la_Musique), Paris. Taskin's workshop became more occupied with piano production and the importing of English [square pianos](/source/Square_piano) in the 1770s and 1780s, but not to the detriment of harpsichords; his death inventory of 1793 shows an equal number of each instrument under construction. There are seven of his double manual harpsichords still in existence; they are prime examples of the late French school of harpsichord building, with a warm and rich tone, range of FF–f''', and disposition of 8' 8' 4' and buff stop. His 1769 double and the 1763/1783–1784 [Goermans](/source/Goermans)/Taskin (which Taskin tried to pass off as a [Couchet](/source/Couchet) by filing away the initials 'JG' to 'IC') have both been praised as ideal instruments for the late French [baroque](/source/Baroque_music) repertoire such as the works of [Rameau](/source/Jean-Philippe_Rameau) and [Armand-Louis Couperin](/source/Armand-Louis_Couperin). The [Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments](/source/Yale_University_Collection_of_Musical_Instruments) houses a 1770 double. These instruments have been studied and copied many times by modern makers. ## Further reading - John Koster: *Two Early French Grand Pianos*, Early Keyboard Journal, xii (1994) - [William Dowd](/source/William_Dowd): *The Surviving Instruments of the Blanchet Workshop*, *The Historical Harpsichord: a Monograph Series in Honor of Frank Hubbard*, i, ed. Howard Schott (Stuyvesant, NY, 1984) - [Donald H. Boalch](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Donald_H._Boalch&action=edit&redlink=1): *Makers of the Harpsichord and [Clavichord](/source/Clavichord) 1440–1840* ([Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press), ASIN: 019318429X; 3rd edition, 1995) - [Frank Hubbard](/source/Frank_Hubbard): *Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making* ([Harvard University Press](/source/Harvard_University_Press), 1965) - [Andreas Beurmann](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Andreas_Beurmann&action=edit&redlink=1): *Historische Tasteninstrumente: Cembali, Spinette, Virginale, Clavichorde. Die Sammlung Andreas und Heikedine Beurmann im Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg* (Prestel, Munich/London/New York, 2000) - Colombe Samoyault-Verlet: *Les Facteurs de clavecins parisiens : notices biographiques et documents (1550-1793)* (Société française de musicologie, Paris, 1966), pp. 69-72. ## See also - [List of historical harpsichord makers](/source/List_of_historical_harpsichord_makers) ## References - [Edward Kottick](/source/Edward_Kottick): *A History of the Harpsichord* ([Indiana University Press](/source/Indiana_University_Press), 2003) - [William R. Dowd](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_R._Dowd&action=edit&redlink=1)/John Koster: 'Taskin, Pascal (Joseph)', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 23 May 2007), [http://www.grovemusic.com/](http://www.grovemusic.com/) ## External links - [Double-manual harpsichord, Pascal Taskin. Paris, 1769](https://web.archive.org/web/20070527014246/http://www.music.ed.ac.uk/russell/instruments/hd7pt176915/table.html) — in the [Russell Collection](/source/Russell_Collection), [Edinburgh](/source/Edinburgh) - [Double-manual harpsichord, Jean Goermans/Pascal Taskin. Paris, 1763/1783–1784](https://web.archive.org/web/20071023220108/http://www.music.ed.ac.uk/russell/instruments/hd5jg176329/table.html) — in the Russell Collection, Edinburgh - [PASCAL THE RASCAL!!](http://www.claviantica.com/Restorations_files/GT_plan.htm) — information about how Taskin altered the [Goermans](/source/Goermans) to make it look like a [Couchet](/source/Couchet) Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF GND WorldCat National Netherlands Poland Artists ULAN People BMLO Deutsche Biographie DDB Other Yale LUX --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Pascal Taskin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_Taskin) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_Taskin?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.