My husband and I have been working on a Telemann sonata “for flute and piano,” though as with most Baroque music, one can play it with any instruments that approximately match its range, making adjustments as needed. Since the pianoforte was invented when Telemann was around 30, the harpsichord is a good substitute for the piano, and most of the Youtube videos of professionals playing this piece use it, as well as a Baroque flute. We not do not own one of those; the Irish flute is not the same, nor is it played in the same manner as the concert flute. As with home cooking and restaurant cooking, amateur music and professional music offer unique and distinct procedures and pleasures.

We don’t have a harpsichord either, and I have not taken even a single harpsichord lesson. As my husband pointed out, by some reckoning we do not have a piano either, since we have a Kawai CN39 digital piano, which is pretty much the best piano-like object we can both afford and fit into a beach condo. Our 800-pound 1905 Ellis full upright was just one of the items we gave up for the privilege of living a quarter mile from snow-free Monterey Bay. Definitely worth it.

The Kawai can however sound like a harpsichord, and my husband is very keen for us to record the piece in that manner. I don’t have any compunction about passing off a digital piano as a piano, but I am less sanguine about passing it off as a harpsichord. I mean, obviously I wouldn’t make a recording in which the Kawai was used for the French horn part, or even the Baroque flute for that matter.

That’s my beef with most electronic music, possibly unfairly: Is is really music if no one had to learn how to play an instrument or create a score in order to produce it? Yes, my husband says, the composing techniques are the same, and he has the education to know, so I will cede the point. Occasionally my parochial side pops up, similar in this case to those who enjoy Mozart and Bach but disdain modern classical works, folks I sometimes disdain myself, creating a circle of hypocrisy.

In any case, a real H (harpsichord, which I’m tired of typing) is played very much like a piano, and the Kawai even disables the connection between speed of key depression and volume in H mode, since a (an?) H does not have dynamics. Oddly, the damper pedal still extends the sound, but the (aha!) H also doesn’t have pedals, so perhaps the Kawai designers were thinking one playing the H would keep one’s feet on the floor. I don’t use damper pedals in classical music unless it is marked anyway, and this music doesn’t call for it, although there are plenty of dynamic markings.

We could record the piece both ways, and we might, if no other reason than to express those dynamics. But recording is a bit of a slog, and there are five movements, so we’ll do it one way first then decide how much time we want to spend on it. I like projects that have an End Date, which means we may not get all the movements up to the recommended tempo either.

As a younger person I would have thought that was a failure. As a retired person I’m trying to balance accomplishment and enjoyment. We are recording it so we will have a memento of the time we spent together, since we probably won’t be able to play it at all a year from now.