Shudi, Schudi, Tschudi, Tshudi, Burkat, Burkhardt, *13 March 1702 Schwanden (canton Glarus), †19 August 1773 London, English harpsichord maker of Swiss origin. He came to London in 1718, where he was apprenticed with J. Kirckman at H. Tabel; he started working on his own around 1729. Since 1761, J. Broadwood was an apprentice in his workshop, and, in 1769, he married Shudi’s daughter and became a co-owner of the company in 1770. One of the most important inventions by Shudi was a system of blinds operated with a foot pedal, covering the inside of the body, allowing for a crescendo-decrescendo effect while playing (the so-called “Venetian blind,” Venetian swell, a patent in 1769), as well as a foot pedal which gradually reduces the registration on each manual (machine stop); he also cooperated with J. Snetzler on the construction of claviorgans (none of those instruments remain). Shudi is considered one of the most prominent harpsichord makers next to Kirckman. He created c. 1200 highly valued and desired instruments throughout Europe and exported them to France, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Russia.
They were ordered, among others, by M. Clementi, J. Haydn and G. Händel, whom Shudi was friends with, as well as the Prince of Wales (later King George III), Maria Theresa Habsburg and Frederick the Great who owned four such instruments form 1765–1766. During his English tour, a nine-year-old W.A. Mozart played one of these harpsichords (No. 496) in a London salon in May 1765. Later the instrument belonged to Frederick the Great and was placed in his residence in Wrocław. Until World War II, it was in the Castle Museum in Wrocław, later it disappeared; found in 2012, it was purchased by the Museum of Musical Instruments in Poznań. There are 24 instruments by Shudi preserved and 27 signed by Shudi & Broadwood (i.a. in Brussels, the Hague, London, Oxford, Potsdam, Poznań and Vienna); most of them are double-manual with a range of 5 or 5½ octaves, 8’ 8’ 4’ specification, Venetian swell, Machine stop and Lute stop. Moreover, there are three instruments signed “Joshua S.” (1739–1774), who was Burkat Shudi’s nephew, and one signed “Bernard Sh.”, although his relationship with the Shudi family is unclear. After Shudi’s death, the workshop was run by his son Burkat (1738–1803), and after his death, the workshop passed into the hands of the Broadwoods.
Literature: W. Dale Tschudi the Harpsichord Maker, London 1913; E. Halfpenny Shudi and the „Venetian Swell”, “Music and Letters” XXVII, 1946; E.M. Ripin Expressive Devices Applied to the Eighteenth-Century Harpsichord, “Organ Yearbook” I, 1970; D. Wainwright, K. Mobbs Shudi’s Harpsichords for Frederick the Great, “The Galpin Society Journal” XLIX, 1996; S. K. Klaus, S. Scheibner Ein »ausserordentlicher Flügel von Herrn Tschudy« und Die Sonate KV 19d., “Mozart Studien” 15, ed. M. H. Schmid, Hollitzer Verlag 2006; A. Beurmann et al. An Acoustical Study of a Kirkman Harpsichord from 1766, “The Galpin Society Journal” 2010, vol. 63; B. Vogel Klawesyn Fryderyka Wielkiego niegodzien miejsca w warszawskim Zamku Królewskim?, “Ruch Muzyczny” 2012 no. 10 (the same in: “Spotkania z zabytkami” 2012); P. Frankowski, A. Mądry A 1765 Harpsichord by Burkat Shudi (no. 469) Rediscovered in Poland, “Galpin Society Newsletter” 34 (October 2012); M. Oleskiewicz (ed.) Keyboards, Music Rooms, and the Bach Family at the Court of Frederick the Great, in: M. Oleskiewicz (ed.), “Bach Perspectives”, vol. 11: J. S. Bach and His Sons, Urbana: University of Illinois Press 2017.
