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Apr 25, 2024 · harpsichord, keyboard musical instrument in which strings are set in vibration by plucking. It was one of the most important keyboard instruments in European music from the 16th through the first half of the 18th century. A brief treatment of harpsichords follows. For full treatment, see keyboard instrument: The harpsichord.
- Harpsichord Family
Other articles where harpsichord family is discussed:...
- The harpsichord
Keyboard instrument - Harpsichord, Strings, Plucking: The...
- Harpsichord Family
Zuckermann, Wolfgang (1969) The Modern Harpsichord: Twentieth Century Instruments and Their Makers, New York : October House, ISBN 0-8079-0165-2; The New Grove: Early Keyboard Instruments. Macmillan, 1989 ISBN 0-393-02554-3. (material from here is also available online in Grove Music Online) Beurmann, Andreas (2012) Harpsichords and More ...
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History of the harpsichord. Harpsichord in the Flemish style. The translations of the Latin mottos are "Without skill art is nothing" and "While I lived I was silent—in death I sweetly sing." The harpsichord was an important keyboard instrument in Europe from the 15th through the 18th centuries, and as revived in the 20th, is widely played today.
- The Harpsichord Has A Unique Origin. It began with the psaltery, a wooden instrument with strings stretched across its length. However, musicians could only pluck one string at a time to produce sound on it.
- The First Known Harpsichord Dates Back To The 14th Century. Historical records show that the first known mention of the harpsichord was in 1397, in the estate inventory of Hermann Poll, a citizen of Flanders.
- You Pluck To Produce Sound. Unlike the piano, the harpsichord produces sound by plucking strings using a mechanism called a jack and plectrum. Each key is connected to a jack, which lifts when the key is pressed, causing the plectrum to pluck the string.
- It Lacks Dynamics. When a key on the harpsichord is pressed, the plectrum plucks the string and produces a sound. The force with which the key is struck does not affect the volume of the sound.
The harpsichord was as familiar as the piano to musicians of Haydn and Mozart’s generation, and many fine harpsichords insignificantly different from earlier instruments were made throughout Europe during the 1780s and 1790s. Inevitably, however, there were efforts to render the harpsichord more capable of that manner of expressivity which ...
Harpsichord in the Flemish style. A harpsichord is any of a family of European keyboard instruments, including the large instrument currently called a harpsichord, but also the smaller virginals, the muselar virginals and the spinet. All these instruments generate sound by plucking a string rather than striking one, as in a piano or clavichord.
