harpsichord

The average person has probably heard mention of the harpsichord through shows, movies, and that general music class from elementary school. However, they’re incredibly rare to see and hear in the wild! I recently had the opportunity to tune and play a local harpsichord, and I thought that this would be a great opportunity to write about this historic piece of musical innovation and how it compares to the modern piano.

What Is It?

The harpsichord is the predecessor to the piano. It was first invented in the 1400s, or the late Middle Ages. It looks similar to a piano because it has a long, elongated wooden case that is elevated on legs, many metal strings that run the length of the case, and at least one row of keys that look similar to modern piano keys. Also like a piano, the lid can be propped open to allow maximum sound projection while performing. While it traditionally had a different tuning system than a modern piano, it can commonly be tuned and played in equal temperament tuning, meaning that all of the keys sound just like a piano.

Under the Hood:

There are a couple of key differences (ba dum tss) between a piano and a harpsichord which we’ll discuss in a bit, but the biggest variance is the way that the sound is produced. With a piano, a wooden hammer that is wrapped in felt strikes a group of strings when the adjoining key is pressed. The hammer strikes with higher or lower velocity, or strength, directly depending on how hard the key is struck.

In the case of the harpsichord, a tiny plectrum, or pick, produces the sound. Much like a guitar pick, these plectrums were traditionally made of quill but are usually plastic today. Pressing a key on the harpsichord moves the plectrum against and past the correlating string, which results in a plucked guitar-like tone. A massive difference here is that changing how hard you press the key has no resulting effect on how loud or soft the produced sound is. No matter what, the harpsichord has a continual and constant volume without variance.

Speaking of Volume:

I was shocked at how quiet the harpsichord is. It’s notoriously low in volume, but the real sound in the room was still surprising. I’m not sure how people at court in the Middle Ages heard the harpsichord, especially considering that it was often played with stringed instruments and singers. Just imagine if someone coughed or sneezed – you’d miss everything! Most of this volume loss is because the instrument has difficulty with resonation. A modern piano has multiple strings per (most) notes that are tuned to the exact same pitch. For most of the range, the piano has three metal strings per key. The piano also has the strings pulled across a heavy metal harp, or soundboard. This combination greatly improves the resonance and can result in thunderous projection that can easily fill a recital hall or stage.

The harpsichord struggles with volume on both of these fronts. The plectrums attack the strings gently, which honestly is good because they are fragile and getting in there to replace them is frustrating. This produces a low volume output at the start, but in addition, each note is only produced by a single string tuned to the correct pitch. The final nail in the coffin is that the remainder of the instrument’s soundboard is made of wood, a dampening, soft method of projection that can’t hold a candle to the modern piano.

I’d be remiss in mentioning that the harpsichord commonly does not have any pedals. There is no ability to sustain notes which also results in decreased volume and overtones.

Quirky Bonuses:

It’s not all doom and gloom for the harpsichord, though. It does produce a completely unique and pleasant sound. It also comes in several variations. The instrument that I got to tune has two separate rows of keys much like an organ. It also has three manual levers that can be adjusted while playing to change how the harpsichord sounds. For example, a small lever in the center of the front panel can make the bottom keybed sound muted. The resulting tone is fun and is similar to pizzicato strings or palm-muted guitars.

The remaining two levers add or remove additional octaves. Each note of the harpsichord has an adjacent string that is tuned either an octave higher or lower than its neighbor. When the correct lever is activated, a single note resonates with the fundamental pitch and the corresponding higher (or lower) octave! This is pretty cool, and it definitely produces the quintessential harpsichord sound.

Speaking of Octaves:

The particular instrument that I tuned really struggled with staying in tune in the higher registers. I’m sure that this isn’t the case for every harpsichord, but it was challenging and frustrating to coax it to pitch. The tuning pegs on a harpsichord are much smaller and less sturdy than on a piano, meaning that they like to be sneaky and move on you when you’re not looking. I’d expect that musicians who own harpsichords are used to frequent (if not constant) upkeep and tinkering to help it sound its best.

Overall Review:

Just like in the case of an organ, it is apparent that a harpsichord is not a piano. Sure, pianists can make pretty sounds on it, but properly playing and learning the instrument requires different technique and know-how. The keys on the harpsichord are notably smaller than on a piano, and I found myself stumbling over simple melodies and chords because my hands were used to the proper piano key spacing. I’m glad and grateful that I got to tune it and play with it, but I can’t overstate how much I would never want to own one (that is, unless I had ludicrous personal wealth, extra time, and space). It’s an incredible piece of history, but the tinkering and upkeep required (not to mention the sizeable footprint that it occupies) makes it a hard pass for me.

Sounds like a perfect time to dust off those harpsichord plugins and emulations on your favorite digital keyboard, MIDI instrument, or digital workstation. At least those ones don’t go out of tune or break quills!

I hope that you learned something interesting about the mighty harpsichord, and stay tuned for more installations of the Songbirds Blog! In the meantime, enjoy rocking out to Vivaldi, Bach, and all those other great composers who composed for the ancestral piano back in the day.