SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - For the first time, Yellowknife's musical community has a harpsichord to play at its pleasure.

"There's a lover of early music in Yellowknife," said Amy Hendricks, at whose home the instrument has been housed since it arrived in February.

Anita Kuzma plays the harpsichord during a rehearsal for the Baroque on the Rocks concert. - Alix McNaught/NNSL photo

Hendricks was referring to the man who purchased the harpsichord and wishes to remain anonymous. She explained he first heard the harpsichord a number of years ago when a concert came to Yellowknife. At that time, there was still a dirt road from Behchoko, and the temperamental instrument went out of tune at the slightest bump in the road as it made its way to Yellowknife for the concert.

According to Hendricks, the buyer decided that if Yellowknife had its own harpsichord, people could play early music without the hassles of importing an instrument in. It was several years before he decided to buy one, though.

The buyer contacted the harpsichord player of the well-known Tafelmusik group in Toronto to find out how one bought a harpsichord.

"He phoned her and took her out for dinner three years ago," said Hendricks.

The musician gave him the name of a harpsichord builder in Pennsylvania. Through him, the buyer purchased a harpsichord in New Jersey, and the Pennsylvanian builder began fixing it up in his shop.

The harpsichord had already been paid for, but the builder disappeared for nearly a year and a half, having, in an "artistic melancholy," gone off to Italy with his girlfriend.

In the meantime, however, preparations were being made for the instrument's arrival. Hendricks' husband Paul Davie and the buyer attended an early music festival in B.C., where they spent several days learning from a European harpsichord technician how to tune and fix the instrument, as most harpsichords are cared for by the musicians themselves.

The instrument itself did not arrive for another 18 months, showing up on a -42 C day in February.

"Canadian North has been amazing. They told the buyer they would move the harpsichord for free from Ottawa," said Hendricks.

"The harpsichord guy in Pennsylvania didn't have any idea where the harpsichord was going," she said, adding the buyer had him take out an atlas, at which point the man was "flabbergasted."

The instrument has been at Hendricks' home since February, but following the concerts this weekend, the harpsichord will be moving on to musician Anita Kuzma's home.

"It belongs to Yellowknife. It was bought for the city of Yellowknife to be used for early music. The buyer said, 'I don't care where it is, as long as it's used,'" Hendricks said.

According to Hendricks, while a harpsichord looks similar to a piano, it operates differently. Where a piano's strings are struck by a hammer, a harpsichord's strings are plucked, meaning that they can be played at only one strength, while a piano can be played loudly or softly.

"They're funny beasts. They really respond to the humidity; they're fussy instruments," Hendricks said, though adding, "When you use it for the music it's intended for, it's quite magical."

Baroque on the Rocks, the harpsichord's debut into Yellowknife's musical community, is being held tonight and tomorrow evening in a private home.

"We wanted it to be more intimate, but there will be other concerts. Now that we have the instrument, we can incorporate it. It certainly opens up the possibilities," said Hendricks.

The two early music concerts will feature singers, a flute, a violin and, of course, the harpsichord.