A description and history of the pianoforte and of the older keyboard stringed instruments . the Paris Exhibition, 1889, by M. Thibout ^/ils. There may,however, be older undated. This clavichord bears the nameDominicus Pisaurensis.* It has four octaves, F to f, approximatelyVirdungs compass. The natural keys are of citron wood and thesharps of ebony. It is, of course, gebunden or fretted. Thedamper is a narrow band of soft stuff attached with glue to thehitch-pin block (opposite to the wrest-pin block). It has a curved,or spinet belly-bridge. As the early clavichords were strung withwire in eq
A description and history of the pianoforte and of the older keyboard stringed instruments . the Paris Exhibition, 1889, by M. Thibout ^/ils. There may,however, be older undated. This clavichord bears the nameDominicus Pisaurensis.* It has four octaves, F to f, approximatelyVirdungs compass. The natural keys are of citron wood and thesharps of ebony. It is, of course, gebunden or fretted. Thedamper is a narrow band of soft stuff attached with glue to thehitch-pin block (opposite to the wrest-pin block). It has a curved,or spinet belly-bridge. As the early clavichords were strung withwire in equal lengths, the instrument was long regarded as a set ofmonochords. The scaling was effected by the line of the tangentsattached to the keys on the left hand side of the player, the sound-board bridges (at that time three or more) resting upon the narrowbelly on the right hand side. The belly never covered the CLAVICHORD TANGENT. The strings were of brass, sometimes, in the treble, of steel or iron ;but brass was preferred for the tone. Owing to the length of thescale large clavichords cannot be tuned high. The tangents aresimply upright blades of brass, slender stoppers as shown in theaccompanying diagram, fastened into the keys and beaten out at thetop, so as to touch equally theone string or the two or three unisonstrings forming a note. A tangent was thus a bridge or capo tasto anda sound exciter. Then by a twisted direction of the keys, each of theselittle groups of strings or, in rare instances, single string—exceptingperhaps some of the lowest and highest in the scale—was acted * There is a harpsichord existing inscribed Domenica da Pesaro, 1590. Ithas two registers, spinet and octave, and stops for them at the side. Onekeyboard, compass E—f\ with short octave ; boxwood keys; shps of ivory letinto the black sharps. Leather plectra, probably original, but this cannot beaffirmed.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1896
