Simon Johnson plays Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber

The harpsichord: an introduction, part 3—Glossary

For the past several columns, I have been writing an introduction to the harpsichord. This month, I aim to provide a concise glossary of terms, which in turn will make it easier to be clear as we move forward. For thoroughness I include some terms that I have discussed already. I also include some that seem intuitively obvious, again for thoroughness and easy reference.

1) Large, solid components

Died June 2

Playing slowly

I ended last month’s column with an anecdote that I suggested would lead nicely into what I wanted to write about this month: