Today was the opening of the Boston Early Music Festival Exhibition, a gathering of music instrument makers, sheet music distributors, CD sales, etc.

I call it Dangerous Territory because it is very tempting to pull out my credit card and buy something on a whim! And since my luggage space is limited and especially since I will be on the road for another three weeks, I can’t buy much.

That was how I got my spinet harpsichord — I saw it on display at BEMF and the next thing I knew, it was sitting in my apartment!

I was sorely tempted by this clavicytherium, a hybrid instrument combining the sound of a harp with the ease of a keyboard.

And here’s even one with a pedalboard!

Uh oh … I must confess that I succumbed “just a little,” and bought a couple pieces of organ music and a T-shirt. I’m afraid I’m like a kid in a candy store and can’t help myself!

I am always amazed at the far reach of this blog—I was in the exhibit area and a woman walked up to me and asked, “Are you Katherine?” Why, yes.

“I’ve seen your picture on line because you post things about early music.”

Holy smokes!

In the afternoon I attended a concert by Les Bostonades, an all-female orchestra (except for one man who played the harpsichord) in a program of works by Johann Bernhard Bach (1678-1749) and J.S. Bach. The piece I was really looking forward to hearing was Bach’s “Concerto for Two Harpsichords In C minor, BWV 1060” because it is the opening piece of the concerto concert I am playing with Jieun Newland on January 18, 2020! Except we will perform it with two organs.

I was not disappointed—this was a wonderful rendition, so I was happy. The male harpsichordist, Hank Knox, was closest to where I was sitting and he was playing my part!

The evening concert was an other worldly, almost alien, all medieval music by a group called Sequencia, Benjamin Bagby, director. Two women and two men spoke and sung laments, love songs, and medieval riddles in old English and old Icelandic—some of which had double “entendres,” resulting in tittering by the audience. Repeated melodic patterns on the pentatonic scale were the order of the night. There being no intermission, this was definitely an acquired taste—still I am glad I was here.