Edward Kottick

Edward (Leon) Kottick is a leading expert on the harpsichord, the author of three widely read books on the subject. He is a retired musicology professor at the University of Iowa in Iowa City and is an experienced builder of harpsichords.

Kottick gives the outline facts of his life thus:

I was born in Jersey City, NJ, in 1930, and was brought up in Brooklyn, NY, where I studied the trombone. I later became a music major at NYU. Following two years in the army, where I conducted a band, I went to New Orleans, LA, to play in the symphony; but after a few years of that I decided to go to graduate school at Tulane University, where I was introduced to musicology and renaissance music. The combination made a deep impression on me, and after my MA I went to the University of North Carolina for my PhD. (It was there that I saw my first kit harpsichord.) I continued to play the trombone, which helped me support my wife and two daughters, but by this time I had become a dedicated musicologist. After a series of teaching posts around the midwest I ended up at the University of Iowa, where I have happily remained ever since. I ran the collegium musicum at Iowa for many years, and also played recorder in a baroque trio ensemble. I retired from teaching in 1992.

In his years since retiring Kottick has been active as a scholar, a builder of harpsichords, and as a performing musician; he is currently (2015) the music director of the Old Capitol Opera in Iowa City and conducts musical theater and opera. He has built many instruments and has served as an agent for the Zuckermann harpsichord firm. In more recent years he has written the construction manuals for Zuckermann and designed an instrument for them (a small virginals intended for portable use); it is sold as a kit.

Kottick is the author of three important books about the harpsichord.

• The Harpsichord Owner's Guide: A Manual for Buyers and Owners (1987) is a valuable reference helping harpsichord owners in purchasing and taking proper care of an instrument.
• Early Keyboard Instruments in European Museums, (1997) coauthored with George Lucktenberg, represents the fruits of a long-standing arrangement whereby the authors took groups of harpsichord-oriented tourists on extended visits to the great European musical instrument museums. The work also covers clavichords and early pianos. This book remains a valuable resource for travelers planning such visits. As documentation of contemporary curatorship standards, it is striking for the sheer number of fraudulent instruments (often the work of the famous harpsichord fraudster Leopoldo Franciolini) patiently pointed out by the authors. Many of these have been removed from display subsequent to the publication of this book.
• A History of the Harpsichord (2003), a massive work, synthesizes a great volume of research on both the historical and the 20th century harpsichord. The book repeatedly engages with the opinions given by the great harpsichord builder/scholar Frank Hubbard in his celebrated book Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making (1965, Harvard University Press) and shows how subsequent research forces a reappraisal of these views. Kottick's book is augmented by a gallery of vivid color images and illustrative sound files on an accompanying CD.

A History of the Harpsichord received a generally positive review from the builder-scholar Denzil Wraight, who made numerous criticisms of individual points but concluded, "This book has obviously been written to be accessible to the general reader, [but] I do not think its influence will end there: even the specialist can profit from the view Kottick affords us from the mountaintop which has been steadily climbed with the successive efforts of numerous authors. We understand the significance of the particular by fitting it into its place in the whole; to this aim Kottick has made a substantial contribution." Charles Mould, reviewing for the Galpin Society Journal, says "Kottick has succeeded in producing a masterpiece. ... Those with little knowledge of the instrument can be assured that they will learn a tremendous amount quite painlessly, while the expert, who may not find his or her specialism dealt with in extenso will almost certainly gain further insight into other areas with which they felt they were conversant."

Kottick's journal publications include work on harpsichord acoustics.

In 2006 received the Curt Sachs Award from the American Musical Instrument Society, noting his "distinguished work as a scholar, author, lecturer, builder, and designer."