Editing Harpsichord (section)

==Music==
[[File:Bachbwv933.ogv|thumb|Bach's [[Six Little Preludes (Bach)#Little Prelude in C major, BWV 933|Little Prelude in C major]] being played on a harpsichord]]
The great bulk of the standard repertoire for the harpsichord was written during its first historical flowering, the [[Renaissance music|Renaissance]] and [[Baroque music|Baroque]] eras.

===Renaissance===
The first music written specifically for solo harpsichord was published around the early 16th century. Composers who wrote solo harpsichord music were numerous during the whole Baroque era in European countries including Italy, Germany, England and France. Solo harpsichord compositions included dance [[suite (music)|suites]], [[fantasia (music)|fantasias]], and [[fugue]]s. Among the most famous composers who wrote for the harpsichord were the members of [[virginalist|English virginal school]] of the late Renaissance, notably [[William Byrd]] ({{circa}} 1540–1623). 

===Baroque era===
In France, a great number of highly characteristic solo works were created and compiled into four books of ''ordres'' by [[François Couperin]] (1668–1733). [[Domenico Scarlatti]] (1685–1757) began his career in Italy but wrote most of his solo harpsichord works in Spain; his most famous work is his series of [[List of solo keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti|555 harpsichord sonatas]]. Perhaps the most celebrated composers who wrote for the harpsichord were [[Georg Friedrich Händel]] (1685–1759), who composed numerous suites for harpsichord, and especially [[J. S. Bach]] (1685–1750), whose solo works (for instance, ''[[The Well-Tempered Clavier]]'' and the ''[[Goldberg Variations]]''), continue to be performed very widely, often on the piano. Bach was also a pioneer of the harpsichord concerto, both in [[Harpsichord concertos (J. S. Bach)|works]] designated as such, and in the harpsichord part of his [[Brandenburg concertos|Fifth Brandenburg Concerto]].

===Classical period===
Two of the most prominent composers of the [[Classical period (music)|Classical era]], [[Joseph Haydn]] (1732–1809) and [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]] (1756–1791), wrote harpsichord music. For both, the instrument featured in the earlier period of their careers,{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} and was largely supplanted by the piano starting roughly in the late 1770s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Breitman |first=David |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9781800101944/type/book |title=Piano-Playing Revisited: What Modern Players Can Learn from Period Instruments |date=2021-02-01 |publisher=Boydell and Brewer Limited |isbn=978-1-80010-194-4 |edition=1 |doi=10.1017/9781800101944}}</ref>

===Music of the harpsichord revival===
{{main article|Contemporary harpsichord}}
[[File:Palazzo Stauffer Harpsichord.jpg|thumb|Modern harpsichord, made by Colzani in 2021]]
Through the 19th century, the harpsichord was almost completely supplanted by the piano. In the 20th century, composers returned to the instrument, as they sought out variation in the sounds available to them. Under the influence of [[Arnold Dolmetsch]], the [[harpsichordist]]s [[Violet Gordon-Woodhouse]] (1872–1951) and in France, [[Wanda Landowska]] (1879–1959), were at the forefront of the instrument's renaissance. [[Harpsichord concerto|Concertos]] for the instrument were written by [[Francis Poulenc]] (the ''[[Concert champêtre]]'', 1927–28), and [[Manuel de Falla]]. [[Elliott Carter]]'s ''Double Concerto'' is scored for harpsichord, piano and two chamber [[orchestra]]s. For a detailed account of music composed for the revived harpsichord, see [[Contemporary harpsichord]].