Harpsichord Lessons in New Jersey

The harpsichord preceded the piano by about two centuries and dominated keyboard music from the Renaissance through the late Baroque — which means that the most significant keyboard composer in history, Johann Sebastian Bach, wrote almost all of his keyboard music for it. Playing the harpsichord is not playing the piano on an old-fashioned instrument: it is a fundamentally different technique, a different relationship with touch, and a different approach to expression, because the harpsichord plucks its strings mechanically regardless of how hard or softly the key is depressed. There is no dynamic variation from touch, and understanding that constraint is the beginning of understanding the instrument.

For pianists approaching the harpsichord, the primary challenge is unlearning the use of weight and pressure for expression. On the piano, pushing harder produces a louder, more forceful sound; on the harpsichord, it produces nothing different at all. Articulation — the relationship between notes, the silences between them, the speed of release — becomes the primary expressive tool. A good teacher will spend the early lessons on this substitution deliberately, because pianists who play the harpsichord as if it were a piano produce results that sound mechanical rather than musical.

The teacher community for harpsichord is small but dedicated, concentrated largely in universities, early music programs, and major cities. When choosing a teacher, ask about their training in historical performance practice — harpsichord playing is inseparable from questions of ornamentation, tuning, and style that are specific to the period in which the music was written. Some teachers approach the instrument purely from a modern concert perspective; others emphasize historical authenticity. Both are valid, but knowing which approach a teacher takes helps set expectations.

Three harpsichordists whose recordings are worth studying: Wanda Landowska essentially revived the instrument in the twentieth century after decades of neglect, and her recordings of Bach — however historically contested they have become — still communicate the music’s architecture with extraordinary clarity. Gustav Leonhardt represents the more historically informed approach and his recordings of the Goldberg Variations and French Suites are reference points. Scott Ross completed a landmark recording of all 555 Scarlatti sonatas that remains a monument to what the instrument can do in the right hands.

Bach’s two-part Inventions are the natural starting repertoire — short, contrapuntally clear, and perfectly suited to developing the independent voice control that harpsichord playing requires. The Scarlatti Sonatas are the ideal intermediate goal: each one is brief, character-driven, and a study in a different technical challenge. The Goldberg Variations are the long-term horizon most serious students work toward, one of the great architectural achievements in keyboard music.

Practice each voice of a contrapuntal piece in isolation before combining them — the harpsichord’s clarity means that uneven voice balance is immediately apparent, and fixing it is much easier before the hands are playing together.