Typically, every year when the Sackville Festival of Early Music rolls around, co-director Shawn Bostick drives to Halifax to pick up a harpsichord, hauling it back to Sackville for the festival, which specializes in music of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. But this year, that won’t be necessary.
Thanks to a gift from a longstanding patron of the festival, the Mount Allison music department now boasts its own harpsichord.
Joanna Manning has been coming to the Sackville Festival of Early Music for years, and last year she approached artistic director Linda Pearse to see if there was a concrete way she could support the festival, in thanks for all the concerts she had enjoyed with her late husband, Gary.
After some discussion, the two arrived at the idea of donating a harpsichord, and homing it with the Mount Allison Music Department, where Pearse is assistant professor. “Given our mutual dedication to teaching,” says Pearse, “it seems like the music department would be the best place to receive the harpsichord because they can take care of it, they have students who will benefit from playing it, and we have people coming through town and even faculty on staff who can also play it.”
“This harpsichord sort of opens a window into 200 plus years of repertoire,” says Pearse. “That allows students to enter the sonic world of composers like J. S. Bach or Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre who composed for this instrument. They come a little bit closer to hearing and understanding what the composer envisioned.”
Though a harpsichord resembles a piano in shape, it’s actually not part of the same instrument family, says Pearse. While pressing piano keys activates a hammer on strings, the keys on a harpsichord cause plucking of strings. “The harpsichord generates volume and texture by creating a wash of notes,” says Pearse. “So you can think of it like a waterfall of notes just spilling out from under the keys.”
Audience members will get a few chances to hear that ‘waterfall of notes’ this weekend at the Sackville Early Festival of Music. The harpsichord will have a supporting role in Saturday night’s concert, and then will be featured along with cello on Sunday night. That combination will be “magical” for Joanna Manning, the arts patron whose gift brought the harpsichord to Mount Allison. Manning says Sunday’s concert may even bring her to tears.
An inscription in Latin on the inside cover of the harpsichord has a special relevance for the music lover. “Three years ago, the Early Music festival were some of the last concerts my late husband and I came to together,” says Manning. “The quotation more or less says ‘music is a joy, but also is a companion in sorrow.’ So this year’s concerts will be very meaningful to me.”
Sackville Festival of Early Music concerts 2022:
All concerts to be performed live in Mount Allison’s Brunton Auditorium with home streaming options available. Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors (+65 years), and free for students.
Friday September 23, 2022, 7:30 p.m.
Navré de ton dart
Ensemble ANIMA
Saturday September 24, 2022, 7:30 p.m.
Hommage à l’univers de Molière et à l’humour français
à l’occasion du 400 e anniversaire de sa naissance
Les Boréades de Montréal with Dion Mazerolle, baritone
Sunday September 25, 2022, 7:30 p.m.
Quill and Bow
Mélisande McNabney, harpsichord and Elinor Frey, cello
Monday September 26, at 4:00 p.m., in Brunton Auditorium:
Award-winning harpsichordist, Mélisande McNabney, will lead a 60-minute workshop for keyboard players on the Music Department’s new Flemish double harpsichord, introducing participant to harpsichord care, maintenance, standard playing techniques and fingerings. Open to the public, free-of-charge.
Learn more about the artists and schedule for the festival at sackvilleearlymusic.com
Hear this story as reported on Tantramar Report: