Music that Carries

Very few people are familiar with the intrinsic properties of your common harpsichord. The predecessor of the pianoforte, which we call today simply the “piano” The harpsichord is a monotonous instrument. This was because of the nature in which it had to be played. The player had to have very strong fingers in order to get notes to sound at all and when they did it made them so at single volume. The fact that Fox Tiberon can play the harpsichord at all is a hint to something else much later. Pianofortes were available in wide circulation around this time as well, but they were also larger and not as easily bought by men on an officer’s salary. How Vyse acquired a harpsichord of all things is still a mystery.

Pianoforte was named such because, unlike the harpsicord, volume could be controlled by how lightly or how hard the player struck the keyboard to produce soft (piano) or loud (forte) notes. Whereas with the harpsicord, an old music teacher once told me that there ought to have been spaces betwix the keys so that the player could better achieve a note by slamming thier fist down on it. Apparently, its a difficult (read, stubborn) instrument to play.