William Dowd

William Dowd (28 February 1922, Newark, New Jersey — 25 November 2008, Reston, Virginia) was an American harpsichord maker, one of the early XX-century revivalists of historical building techniques. Between 1949 and 1958, Dowd worked in partnership with Frank Hubbard (1920—1976), later running an independent workshop in Cambridge until his retirement in 1988. Some notable musicians who performed and recorded on Dowd instruments include Gustav Leonhardt, Isolde Ahlgrimm, Ralph Kirkpatrick, Igor Kipnis, and Bob van Asperen. Dowd studied English literature at Harvard University, taking a break to serve in the army during the Second World War and returning to complete his Bachelor's degree in 1948. (William's childhood friend, Frank Hubbard, was two years older and obtained his Bachelor's pre-WWII in 1942, so he was already in the master's program.) While at Harvard, William and Frank made their first clavichord, subsequently deciding to give up teaching careers in favor of instrument-making. Dowd apprenticed with John Challis (1907—1974) in Detroit, the leading harpsichord builder in the United States, while Hubbard traveled to England for his training. In the fall of 1949, Dowd and Hubbard launched a joint workshop in Boston, offering harpsichords and stringed keyboard instruments built strictly according to period techniques. They also restored antique harpsichords and clavichords for museums and private collectors. William ran the business solo between 1955 and 1958 while Hubbard was abroad on his research grants, studying European instrument collections. In late 1958, they closed the "Hubbard & Dowd" shop in Boston, ending the partnership (over creative differences, presumably). Hubbard was a notable Franko & Anglophile, rejecting most things from Germany and Italy, while William Dowd didn't have such prejudice; on the contrary, he was among the first contemporary makers to focus on the German harpsichord builder, Michael Mietke (c.1656—1719). He also favored two-manual harpsichords based on Blanchet and Taskin models and older Ruckers, adapted and rebuilt by French masters. William Dowd established an independent workshop in Cambridge, making around twenty handcrafted instruments annually. Between 1971 and 1985, Dowd licensed his trademark to French maker Reinhard von Nagel (b. 1936), who produced over 250 harpsichords and other instruments signed "William Dowd – Paris" at his Atelier von Nagel in France. After running his Cambridge workshop for thirty years, Dowd retired in 1988.