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Byron Will smoothes a corner in a harpsichord he's building. A warmer in foreground contains animal skin glue that holds some pieces of the instrument together.

(Janet Goetze)

White beef bone, like that used before ivory was regularly imported to Europe, covers the keys of a harpsichord made in 1985. Bog oak, from logs that fell into bogs and turned dark, make the black keys. Papers printed with hand-carved wood blocks surround the keyboard, in the tradition of Flemish craftsmen.

has been making harpsichords, a piano forerunner popular from the 15th to 18th centuries, for nearly 40 years.

"The most exciting thing for me," he said in the work space he rents from an organ builder, "is getting it playing."

He has traveled in North America and Europe to study instruments made in the Flemish, French, Italian, German and Dutch styles, and has selected woods carefully to give him the sound he wants from each instrument.

A guitar player in high school, Will taught himself to play keyboard in college after he heard the music of Johann Sebastian Bach played on a harpsichord.

"Johann Sebastian Bach changed my life," he said. "The music affected me in a way I can't explain."

He changed his major from climatology to music at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. He put together his first harpsichord from a kit, then he decided to build one, as he put it, "from scratch. I cut everything by hand."

Will is one of more than 80 makers of instruments -- mostly stringed instruments but also flutes and drums -- who will show their work at the Northwest Handmade Musical Instrument Show. It is scheduled from noon to 5 p.m. May 3 and 4 at Marylhurst University, 17600 S.W. Highway 43, Lake Oswego.

Byron Will enjoys playing music composed for the harpsichord on the instrument he made in 1985. The music's ornamental notes have a sound that isn't duplicated by other instruments.

A series of 15-minute musical performances by some of the region's outstanding musicians and woodworking demonstrations by instrument makers also are scheduled, said Cyndy Burton, coordinator of the show.

Admission to the event is $3 for adults and free for children under 12. The admission is kept low, Burton said, to encourage families to attend and to underscore the educational intent of the show.

The harpsichords of Will, who lives in Northeast Portland, and the lutes of Ken Wryn, an Estacada resident who makes Renaissance and Baroque lutes, are early instruments gaining new interest among musicians.

The show also will have a section called "The Venerables," Burton said, which is a display of old or unusual instruments that aren't for sale. One is a 1902 harp guitar, which some craftsmen are making again. It was developed as a substitute for large harps that weren't easily transported for performances.

A friend painted flowers and other designs on the harpsichord's soundboard in a "Celebration of Spring" theme, says Byron Will. Flemish instruments usually have such artwork.

While the harpsichord is viewed as a forerunner of the piano, it differs in several ways that produce a different sound quality, Will said. Piano strings are struck by small hammers while harpsichord strings are plucked by pieces of feather stems.

Will often spends five months on a harpsichord, making virtually every piece in the instrument.. He even carves and inks designs for the decorative papers lining the lids and surrounding the keyboards of his Flemish-style instruments.

Most of his clients are music teachers and teaching institutions in Europe and the U.S., including Portland State University, which has one of his Italian-style harpsichords. Others include amateur musicians who are serious enough to pay $15,000 to $30,000 for an instrument.

Although he doesn't regard himself as a polished musician, Will enjoys playing the music originally composed for the harpsichord, which many people know only from its adaptations for guitar, piano and other instruments.

"We are really trying to recreate the past," Will said, adding, "It's almost impossible."

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