On June 15 (”Garden Sunday”) people in St. John’s congregation heard a very different sound during the 10:00 a.m. prelude as they prepared for worship.Instead of music flowing from the pipes of our Casavant or Kney organs, their ears picked up the voice of a wooden baroque recorder playing Bach, accompanied by the rich harmony and counterpoint of many plucked strings. The new member of our church’s musical “family” is a harpsichord, an early keyboard precursor of the familiar piano.

With the 20th-century revival of interest in pre-classical music and old instruments, the harpsichord (which comes in many shapes and sizes) made a big comeback, which continues to this day. Instead of many small hammers hitting multiple high-tension strings to produce a wide range of volume and note-lengths as happens in the piano, a harpsichord’s lighter strings are vibrated with tiny picks (once made of feather quills) that always give the same volume and length of sound.

This smaller, but bright and agile tone is ideal for many kinds of chamber music and choral works, both sacred and secular. With the growing number of choirs, soloists and instrumental ensembles using St. John’s as a first-choice rehearsal and performance space, the addition of a harpsichord makes our church building an even more attractive venue for cultural events.

Our new-to-us harpsichord was built in 1963 by a music-loving biology professor (now retired) who taught for many years at the University of Waterloo. When he purchased a much larger custom-made instrument from the famous Hubbard firm in the early 1970s, there was no room for both in his home; his hand-built one was “adopted” by a couple who years later transferred to St. John’s (and wish to remain unnamed on the website).

They recently decided that their small home wasn’t doing justice to the harpsichord, as there was barely room for anyone (except the player and a cat or two) to listen to it, so it was offered to St. John’s through our music director, Marlin Nagtegaal.

With the expert help of local harpsichord technician Marc Pare, who donated the bulk of the time he spent checking, adjusting and evaluating the instrument, it was pronounced fit to move to its new home. Marlin, with Alfred Durichen (who also worked together last summer on the Kney organ) picked up and delivered the harpsichord just days before its “premiere.”

A heart-warming footnote to this ideal musical adoption is that we were able to track down and make contact with the harpsichord’s original builder, who although also wanting to remain private, expressed delight that his labour of musical love was still being used and enjoyed … and will be for many years to come!

— submitted by Pauline Finch