The "harp" in harpsichord

When I was a little girl, I had a recurring dream about standing on my tip-toes and reaching up to play the keys on a piano that had two keyboards. Except that the color of the keys in my dream were reversed from those on a standard piano (the large keys were black and the small keys were white). When I first encountered a a harpsichord in junior high school, the old dream finally made sense and I knew that it hadn't been about a piano at all. It started a new dream, too: one day, I was going to play the harpsichord.

And I did when I reached college. I built on my piano background and took two years of harpsichord lessons as part of my music minor degree. I fell in love with the instrument. I loved the slight resistance of the keys as they activated the plectra that plucked the strings. I loved the physical grip of my fingers on those keys. I loved the noisy, active sound it made up close (nothing like the delicate tinkles you hear harpsichords make from afar).

And I got really annoyed when I told people I was studying harpsichord and they always answered, "Oh, you're a harpist!" No, I'd repeat, I play a harpSICHORD. And I'd be met with blank stares. How dare they call me a harpist! Little did I know that one day I'd have "harpist" printed on my business cards and that the word would almost become part of my last name, as in "Oh, you're Amy KortuemTheHarpist!"

I got to revisit a harpsichord up close when Prima Vox sang with the Mankato Symphony Orchestra in May. David Fienen accompanied us on the Bach-Gounod "Ave Maria" and he also played played with the orchestra. I had the distinct privilege of being his page-turner during Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5. The notes on the page were nearly black and watching him command the keyboard with fingers that blurred from the speed at which he played was thrilling.

David Fienen's hands, warming up for the Brandenburg 5.

I also got a few minutes alone with the gorgeous instrument at rehearsal. It was sentimental and moving to let my own fingers remember their way around the keyboard. The harp is such a physically and musically satisfying instrument to play. But I think the harpsichord, the first instrument of my dreams, is a very close second.