I know I’m a real sucker for generalisations, but one of the things you notice when you’ve grown up in the music world is that certain instruments encourage distinctive characteristics in the people who play them. It’s a bit like dog owners who start to resemble their pets (though I’m not implying that pianists have three legs and are hard to wheel around).
I only started thinking about this when I had to teach a bunch of 13-year-olds about orchestras. I was confident I had enough material to last 40 minutes, but having gone through all the different families of instruments and where they sit, the clock showed that I’d still got half an hour to kill. So I started talking about the sort of people who played all the different instruments, and what they’re like.
The harpischord player
Some are easier to detect than others. I was sitting in the Turf Tavern in Oxford with a friend when a man sat at the next table. He was very thin with a beard, and was wearing shorts, white socks and sandals. Impulse convinced me without a doubt that he played the harpsichord. A very long shot, I know, but it was enough to prompt me to introduce myself to him. I thought I’d start broad, and then focus in, so I asked if he was into early music. He looked at me as if fame had found him at last, and said, ‘Yes, have you seen me perform? I play the harpsichord.’
