Welcome to K2M's Page for
"If It's Not a Piano, What Is It?"
| If It's Not a Piano, What Is
It? is a concise, gracefully
written book by harpsichordist Dorothy S. Freeman.
The book is an introduction to the
construction and history of the harpsichord, written in clear and straightforward
language. It is also suitable for use in schools.
If It's Not A Piano, What Is It? costs $9.95 and can be purchased by e-mailing or writing to: Keys to the Millenium Website, 1 Cotton Hall Lane, Hilton Head, SC 29928. If It's Not a Piano, What Is It? also comes with a companion video, which has been broadcast over PBS. The video is $19.95. (Don't forget to visit our Screening Room to see excerpts of it.) The video and booklet together are: $25.00 |
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If you...
...this book is for you! |
| To purchase the book, If It's Not a Piano, What Is It? email K2M. Below are some excerpts from the book. |
"The Instrument looks somewhat like a piano and is played at a keyboard that sometimes looks like a piano keyboard. Many times it looks as if someone made a mistake and reversed the white and black keys, or as if someone omitted the ivory on the keys. Some people think it resembles a guitar because it has a plucked string sound like the guitar, but it is neither an odd piano nor an oversized guitar. It is a harpsichord. The harpsichord is a much older instrument than the piano. For several hundred years it was the instrument people played at home as well as an important element in instrumental ensembles. Times change. Musical styles and tastes change. and as they change, so do the instruments upon which the music is played. For a long time people believed these changes meant progress, that the most modern was an improvement over older things. This was the Idea of Progress. We now realize that, although the piano is a newer instrument than the harpsichord, it is not a better instrument. It is a different one."-page 2
"On the
piano if you strike a key harder, the tone is louder. Perhaps you have seen
some perfomers who strike the keys hard enough to kae the piano jump when
playing a late Romantic concerto, quite a feat when you think of the weight
of a grand piano! If you strike the harpsichord key with greater force, all
you hear is the same or even a lesser amount of stringpluck, plus an unmusical
thunk as the jacks hit the jackrail. The harpsichord is capable of a number
of different levels of sound and tone colors, but it creates levels, not
gradations between them." page 16
"Travel
and communication were both slow and expensive with the consequence that
building a harpsichord differed from country to country, from city to city,
and even from one shop to another. Each builder made the keyboard his own
way- ebony accidentals (the sharps and flats) with ivory keys, light wood
keys and darker wood accidentals, ebony keys and ivory accidentals. Short
keys, long keys, wider keys and narrower keys. Interestingly, modern study
has shown that every part of the harpsichord affects its tone-materials,
shape, plucking point-so every difference affects the tone." page 7