The Antunes family were Portuguese harpsichord- and early piano builders in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Known builders of the family

Julião was the father of Joaquim José; he was a maker of

string instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the ...

s for the royal chapel in Lisbon :Joaquim José (1731–1811) harpsichord maker in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, and the most prominent member of the family. :Manuel (1707–1796) was the brother of Joaquim José and shared a workshop with him. :::João Baptista ( fl.1825–1865), was the grandson of Manuel and a maker of

keyboard instrument A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers which are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital piano ...

Surviving instruments

There are four Antunes instruments still in existence. Two single manual harpsichords with disposition 8' 8' are signed by Joaquin José: one dated 1758, now in the Museu da Música,

and one dated 1785, that was in the

Finchcocks Finchcocks is an early Georgian manor house in Goudhurst, Kent. For 45 years it housed a large, visitor-friendly museum of historical keyboard instruments, displaying a collection of harpsichords, clavichords, fortepianos, square pianos, organs ...

collection,

Goudhurst Goudhurst is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. It lies in the Weald, around south of Maidstone, on the crossroads of the A262 and B2079. The parish consists of three wards: Goudhurst, Kilndown and ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

until 2016. Their other existing instruments are signed only 'Antunes', probably because they were made by Manuel and Joaquin José working together. These are a grand piano, very similar to their harpsichords in design and construction with an action like that of

Bartolomeo Cristofori Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco (; May 4, 1655 – January 27, 1731) was an Italian maker of musical instruments famous for inventing the piano. Life The available source materials on Cristofori's life include his birth and death recor ...

, made in 1767, now in the

National Music Museum The National Music Museum: America's Shrine to Music & Center for Study of the History of Musical Instruments (NMM) is a musical instrument museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, United States. It was founded in 1973 on the campus of the University ...

Vermillion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color, color family, and pigment most often made, since antiquity until the 19th century, from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide, which is toxic) and its corresponding color. It is ...

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

and a harpsichord similar to the others made in 1789 in the Museu da Música, Lisbon.

Recordings on original instruments

The existing instruments have been readily seized upon by harpsichordists as the ideal instruments upon which to play the music of

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

composers such as

Carlos Seixas José António Carlos de Seixas (; 11 June 1704 – 25 August 1742) was a pre-eminent Portuguese composer of the 18th century. An accomplished virtuoso of both the organ and the harpsichord, Seixas succeeded his father as the organist for Old Cat ...

and

Manuel Blasco de Nebra Manuel Orlandi Blasco de Nebra (2 May 1750 – 12 September 1784) was a Spanish organist and composer who lived in Seville. He was the son of José Blasco de Nebra (Lacarra), the organist of Seville Cathedral since 1735, and became his assistan ...

. These recordings use original Antunes instruments: *Carlos Seixas: Harpsichord Sonatas, played by Cremilde Rosado Fernandes (1758 instrument); Portugalsom CD 870023/PS. *Carlos Seixas: Harpsichord Sonatas, played by Robert Woolley (1785 instrument); Amon Ra CD-SAR 43. *Carlos Seixas: Harpsichord Sonatas, Sinfonia, Harpsichord Concerto, conducted and played by Ketil Haugsand (1758 instrument) with the Norwegian Baroque Orchestra; Virgin Veritas 45114. *Carlos Seixas: Concerto, Sonatas, played by José Luis González Uriol (1758 instrument) and Segréis de Lisboa (conducted by Manuel Morais), Portugaler 2003-2 *Carlos Seixas: 12 Harpsichord Sonatas, played by Rui Paiva (1758 instrument), Philips 528 574-2 *Manuel Blasco de Nebra: Sonatas & Pastorelas, played by Carole Cerasi (1785 instrument); Metronomist MET1064. *Lodovico Giustini di Pistoia: Sonate da Cimbalo di Piano, e Forte, detto volgarmente di Martelletti (Firenze, 1732), played by Cremilde Rosado Fernandes (1767 pianoforte), Numérica - NUM 1047 *Carlos Seixas: Harpsichord Sonatas (complete recording, vol. I), played by José Carlos Araújo (1758 instrument); Melographia Portugueza CD 12/001, MPMP. *Carlos Seixas: Harpsichord Sonatas (complete recording, vol. III), played by José Carlos Araújo (1758 instrument); Melographia Portugueza CD 13/003, MPMP.

Sources

*John Koster (with Gerhard Doderer): 'Antunes', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 2007-05-23), http://www.grovemusic.com/ *Donald H. Boalch: ''Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord 1440-1840'',

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

ASIN: 019318429X; 3rd edition (1995) *Raymond Russell: ''The Harpsichord and Clavichord'' (London, 1959) *Gerhard Doderer & John Henry van der Meer, ''Cordofones de tecla portugueses do séc XVIII: clavicórdios, cravos, pianofortes e espinetas'' / ''Portuguese string keyboard instruments of the 18th century: clavichords, harpsichords, fortepianos and spinets'' (bilingual edition), Lisboa, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 2005

Known builders of the family

Surviving instruments

Recordings on original instruments

Sources

See also