ABSTRACT
Hubert Bédard was a pioneer of the restoration of period keyboard instruments. After initial studies in harpsichord with Kenneth Gilbert, he completed his training 1960–1 in Vienna with Isolde Ahlgrimm and Eta Harisch Schneider. The idea of attempting to rediscover the authentic sounds of earlier musical eras came to him while he was working with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam in 1961. To put his idea into practice, he studied harpsichord manufacturing in 1962–6 in Boston with Frank Hubbard. When the latter was asked in 1967 to assess the work required to restore the instruments at the museum of the Paris Conservatoire, he took Bédard with him, and Bédard remained in France as director of the museum’s restoration workshop. Following his death, his colleague and friend Reinhard von Nagel wrote: “The work of this Canadian, who resided in France since 1967, played a decisive role in the renewal of instrument building in our country” (Paris Le Monde, 22 June 1989). In this study, Bédard’s life and oeuvre are recaptured with the aim of reinforcing the historical record in favour of his fundamental role in the early keyboard revival.
