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See also:PIANOFORTE (Ital. piano, soft, and forte, loud)
.
The See also:group
of keyed stringed musical See also:instruments, among which the piano-
forte is latest in See also:order of See also:time, has been invented and step by
step See also:developed with the See also:modern See also:art of See also:music, which is based
upon the simultaneous employment of different musical sounds
.
In the loth See also:century the " organum " arose, an elementary
See also:system of See also:accompaniment to the See also:voice, consisting of fourths and
octaves below the See also:melody and moving with it; and the See also:organ
(q.v.), the earliest keyed See also:instrument, was, in the first instance, the
See also:rude embodiment of this See also:idea and convenient means for its
expression
.
There was as yet no See also:keyboard of balanced See also:
Aribo strenuously endeavoured to improve it, and " by the See also:grace of See also:God " invented a mono-chord measure which, on See also:account of the rapidity of the leaps he could make with it, he named a See also:wild-See also:goat (caprea)
.
See also:Jean de Muris (Musica speculativa, 1323) teaches how true relations may be found by a single-string monochord, but recommends a four-stringed one, properly a tetrachord, to gain a knowledge of unfamiliar intervals
.
He describes the musical instruments known in his time, but does not mention the clavichord or monochord with keys, which could not have been then invented
.
Perhaps one of the earliest forms of such an instrument, in which stoppers or tangents had been adopted from the organistrum, is shown in fig
.
1, from a See also:wood See also:carving of a See also:vicar choral or organist, pre-served in St See also:Mary's church, See also:Shrewsbury
.
The latest date to which this interesting figure may be
attributed is 146o, but the conventional See also:representation shows that the instrument was then already of a past See also:fashion, although perhaps still retained in use and See also:familiar to the See also:carver
.
In the See also:Weimar Wunderbuch,3 a MS. dated 1440, with See also:pen and See also:ink miniatures, is given a " clavichordium " having 8 See also:short and apparently 16 See also:long keys, the artist has drawn 12 strings in a rectangular See also:case, but no tangents are visible
.
A keyboard of balanced keys existed in the little portable organ known as the See also:regal, so often represented in old carvings, paintings and stained windows
.
See also:Vitruvius, De architectura, See also:lib. x. cap. xi., translated by See also:Newton, describes a balanced keyboard; but the key apparatus is more particularly shown in The See also:Pneumatics of See also:Hero of See also:Alexandria, translated by Bennet Woodcroft (See also:London, 1851)
.
In See also:confirmation of this has been the remarkable recovery at See also:Carthage' of a terra-See also:cotta See also:model of a Hydraulikon or See also:water. organ, dating from the 2nd century A.D., in which a balanced keyboard of 18 or 19 keys is shown
.
It seems likely the balanced keyboard was lost, and afterwards reinvented
.
The name of
2 See " Musica aribonis scholastici," printed by See also: 197; and in J . P . See also:Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus, vol . 150, See also:col . 1307 . Grossherzogliche Bibliothek . See also Dr Alwin Schulz, Deutsches Leben See also:im xiv. and xv . Jahrhund . (See also:Vienna, 1892), p . 58, fig . 522 . ' For an See also:illustration of this important piece of See also:evidence, see under ORGAN: See also:Ancient History; and for description and illustration of balanced keys, see KEYBOAE.n . Monochord; Clavichord . regal was derived from the See also:rule (See also:regula) or graduated See also:scale of keys, and its use was to give the singers in religious processions the See also:note or See also:pitch . The only instrument of this See also:kind known to exist in the See also:United See also:Kingdom is at See also:Blair See also:Atholl, and it bears the very See also:late date of 163o . The See also:Brussels regal' may be as modern . These are instances of how long a some-time admired musical instrument may remain in use after its first intention is forgotten . We attribute the See also:adaptation of the narrow regal keyboard to what was still called the monochord, but was now a complex of monochords over one resonance See also:board, to the latter See also:half of the 14th century; it was accomplished by the 'substitution of tangents fixed in the future ends of the balanced keys for the movable See also:bridges of the monochord or such stoppers as are shown in the Shrewsbury carving . Thus the monochordiuin or" payre of monochordis " became the clavichordium or " payre of clavichordis "—pair being applied, in the old sense of a "pair 'of steps," to a See also:series of degrees . This use of the word to imply gradation was See also:common in See also:England to all keyed instruments; thus we read, in the Tudor See also:period and later, of a pair of regals, See also:organs, or virginals . Ed. See also:van der Straeten2 reproduces a so-called clavichord of the 15th century from a MS. in the public library at See also:Ghent . The See also:treatise is See also:anonymous, but other See also:treatises in the same MS. See also:bear See also:dates 1503 and 1504 . Van der Straeten is of See also:opinion that the See also:drawing may be assigned to the See also:middle of the 15th century . The See also:scribe calls the instrument a clavicimbalum, and this is undoubtedly correct; the 8 strings in the drawing are stretched from back to 'front over a long sound-board, the longest strings to the See also:left; 8 keys, 4 long and 4 short with levers to which are attached the jacks, are seen in a See also:horizontal See also:line behind the keyboard, and behind them again are given the names of the notes a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h .
In the Weimar Wunderbuch is a pen-and-ink See also:sketch of the " clavicimbalum "3 placed upon a table, in which we recognize the familiar outline of the See also:harpsichord, but on a smaller scale
.
The keyboard shows See also: 454: regal with two See also:bellows, end of XVI . C . Compass E to See also:a2 . ' La Musique aux Pays Bas, i . 278 . ' See Dr Alwin Schulz, op. cit., fig . 524 . ' V . 410 and 414 . See See also:Ambros, Geschichte der Musik (1892), U . 226 . 6 L'Harmonie universelle (See also:Paris, 1636), livre TI I. p .
107
.
6 A
.
J
.
Hipkins, History of See also:Pianoforte (London, 1896), p
.
51.the Shrewsbury example
.
We quote the reference to it from Dr Ambros.' He says a carving represents See also:
The extent of this scale is exactly Guido's
.
Virdung's diagram of the chromatic is the same as our own familiar keyboard, and comprises three octaves and a note, from F below the See also:bass stave to G above the See also:treble
.
But Virdung tells us that even then clavichords were made longer than four octaves by repetition of the same order of keys
.
The introduction of the chromatic order he attributes to the study of See also:Boetius, and the consequent endeavour to restore the three musical genera of the Greeks—the diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic
.
But the last-named had not been attained
.
Virdung gives woodcuts of the clavichordium, the See also:virginal, the clavicymbalum and the See also:clavicytherium
.
We reproduce three of them (See also:figs
.
3, 6 and See also:r2), omitting the virginal
1Mmiii f IP.7 \__'°-See also:rein
.~i+~f1/~1~/Ilyl It -~8\011~ /If# ff.. gffM/Iff d/0.ff i
~iss~~rssssi~~s_1~s~n_ _u_ /(
as obviously incorrect
.
Writers on musical instruments have continually repeated these drawings withoutidiscerning that in the See also:printing they are reversed, which puts the keyboards entirely wrong, and that in Luscinius's Latin See also:translation of Virdung (Musurgia, sive praxis musicae, Strasburg, 1536), which has been hitherto chiefly followed, two of the engravings, the clavicimbalum and the clavicytherium, are transposed, another cause of See also:error
.
Martin See also: Still vulgarly known as monochord, Virdung's clavichord was really a See also:box of monochords, all the strings being of the same length . He derives the clavichord from Guido's monochord as he does the virginal from the psaltery, but, at the same time, confesses he does not know when, or by whom, either instrument was invented . We observe in this drawing the short sound-board, which always remained a peculiarity of the clavichord, and the straight sound-board bridge—necessarily so when all the strings were of one length . To gain an See also:angle of incidence for the tangents against the strings the keys were made crooked, an expedient further rendered necessary by the " fretting "—three tangents, according to Virdung, being directed to stop as many notes from each single group of three strings tuned in unison; each tangent thus made a different vibrating length of string . In the drawing the strings are merely indicated . The See also:German for See also:fret is Bund, and such a clavichord, in that See also:language, is known as a "gebundenes Clavichord" both fret (to rub) and Bund (from binden, to See also:hind) having been taken over from the See also:lute or See also:viol . The See also:French and Italians employ " touche " and " tasto," See also:touch . Praetorius who wrote a hundred years later than Virdung, says two, three and four tangents were thus employed in stopping . There are extant small clavichords having three keys and tangents to one pair of strings and others have no more than two tangents to a note formed by a pair of strings, instead of three . Thus seven pairs of strings suffice for an octave of twelve keys, the open notes being F, G, A, B flat, C, D, E flat, and by an unexplained peculiarity, perhaps derived from some See also:special estimation of the notes which was connected with the church modes, A and D are left throughout See also:free from a second tangent . A corresponding value of these notes is shown by their See also:independence of chromatic alteration in tuning the See also:double Irish See also:harp, as explained by Vincentio Galilei in his treatise on music (Dialogo della musica, See also:Florence, 1581) . Adlung, who died in 1762, speaks of another fretting, but it must have been an adaptation to the modern See also:major scale, the " free " notes being E and B . Clavichords were made with double fretting up to about the See also:year 1700—that is to say, to the epoch of J . S . See also:Bach, who, taking See also:advantage of its abolition and the consequent use of See also:independent pairs of strings for each note, was enabled to tune in all keys equally, which had been impossible so long as the fretting was maintained . The modern scales having become established, Bach was now able to produce, in 1722, Das woltltentperirte Clavier, the first collection of preludes and fugues in all the twenty-four major and See also:minor scales for a clavichord which was tuned, as to See also:concordance and dissonance, fairly equal . The oldest clavichord, here called manicordo (as French manicorde, from monochord), known to exist is that shown in fig . 4 . It will be observed that the lowest octave is here already See also:Ftc . 4.-Manicordo (Clavichord) d'Eleonora di Montalvo, 1659; Kraus Museum, Florence . " hundfrei " or fret-free . The strings are no longer of equal length, and there are three bridges, divisions of the one bridge, in different positions on the sound-board . Mersenne's " manicorde " (Harmonie universelle, Paris 1636, p . 115), shown in an See also:engraving in that See also:work, has the strings still nearly of equal length, but the sound-board bridge is divided into five . The fretted clavichords made in See also:Germany in the last years of the 17th century have the curved sound-board bridge, like a spinet . In the clavichord the tangents always form the second bridge, indispensable for the vibration, besides acting as the sound exciters (fig . 5) . The common damper to all the strings is a See also:list of See also:cloth, interwoven behind the tangents . As the tangents quitted the strings the cloth immediately stopped all vibration . Too much cloth would diminish the See also:tone of this already feeble instrument, which gained the name of " dumb spinet " from its use . In the clavichord in See also:Rubens's St Cecilia (See also:Dresden Gallery)—interesting as perhaps representing that r- painter's own instrument—the 2wr " ~iff1TTITif damping cloth is accurately FIG . 5 . —Clavichord Tangent. painted . The number of keys there shown is three octaves and a third, F to A—the same extent as in See also:Handel's clavichord now in the museum at See also:Maidstone (an Italian instrument dated 1726, and not fretted), but with the peculiarity of a combined chromatic and short octave in the lowest notes, to which we shall have to refer when we arrive at the spinet; we pass it by as the only instance we have come across in the clavichord . The clavichord must have gone out of favour in Great See also:Britain and the See also:Netherlands early in the 16th century, before its expressive See also:power, which is of the most See also:tender and intimate quality, could have been, from the nature of the music played, observed, —the more brilliant and elegant spinet being preferred to it . Like the other keyboard instruments it had no German name, and can hardly have been of German origin .
See also:Holbein, in his drawing of the See also:family of See also:Sir See also: This answers the assertion which has been made that J . S . Bach could not have been See also:nice about tuning when he played from preference on an instrument of uncertain intonation . The next instrument described by Virdung is the virginal (virgin-ails, proper for a girl), a parallelogram in shape, having the same projecting keyboard and compass of keys the same as virginal. the clavichordium . Here we can trace derivation from the psaltery in the sound-board covering the entire inner See also:surface of the instrument and in the triangular disposition of the strings . The virginal in Virdung's drawing has an impossible position with reference to the keyboard, which renders its See also:reproduction as an illustration useless . But in the next drawing, the clavi- cimbalum, this is rectified, and the drawing, reversed on clavl cnnbalum . account of the keyboard, can be accepted as roughly representing the instrument so called (fig . 6) . There would be 1ARP1110 no difference between it and the virginal were it not for a peculiarity of keyboard compass, which emphatically refers itself to the Italian " spinetta," a name unnoticed by Virdung or by his countryman See also:Arnold Schlick, who, in the same year 1511, published his Spiegel der Orgelmacher (Organ-builders' See also:Mirror), and named the clavichordium and clavicimbalum as familiar instruments . In the first place, the keyboard, beginning apparently with B natural, instead of F, makes the clavicimbalum smaller than the virginal, the strings in this arrangement being shorter; in the next place it is almost certain that the Italian spinet compass, beginning apparently upon a semitone, is identical with a " short measure " or " short octave " organ compass, a very old keyboard arrangement, by which the lowest note, representing B, really sounded G and C See also:sharp in like manner A . The origin of this may be deduced from the psaltery and many representations of the regal, and its See also:object appears to have been to obtain dominant basses for cadences, harmonious closes having early been sought for as giving See also:pleasure to the See also:ear . Authority for this practice is to be found in Mersenne, who, in 1636, expressly describes it as occurring in his own spinet (espinette) . He says the keyboards of the spinet and organ are the same . Now, in his Latin edition of the same work he renders espinette by clavicimbalum . We read (Harmonie Universelle, Paris, 1636, liv . 3, p . 107—" Its longest string [his spinet's] is little more than a See also:foot in length between the two bridges . It has only See also:thirty-one keys [See also:marches] in its keyboard, and as many strings over its sound-board [he now refers to the illustra- tion], so that there are five keys hidden on account of the per- spective—that is to say, three diatonic and two chromatic [ feintes, same as the Latin ficti], of which the first is cut into two [a divided sharp forming two keys] ; but these sharps serve to go down to the third and fourth below the first step, C sol [See also:tenor clef C], in order to go as far as the third octave, for the eighteen See also:principal steps make but an eighteenth, that is to say, a fourth more than two octaves." The note we See also:call F, he, on his engrav- See also:ing, letters as C, indicating the pitch of a spinet of the second See also:size, which the one described is not . The third and fourth, reached by his divided sharp, are consequently the lower A and G; or, to See also:complete, as he says, the third octave, the lowest note might be F, but for that he would want the diatonic semitone B, which his spinet, according to his description, did not possess.' Mersenne's statement sufficiently proves; first, the use in spinets as well as in organs of what we now call " short measure," and, secondly, the object of divided sharps at the lower end of the keyboard to gain lower notes . He speaks of one string only to each note; unlike the double and triple strung clavichord, those instruments, clavicimbalum, spinet, or virginal, derived from the psaltery, could only See also:present one string to the See also:mechanical plectrum which twanged it . As regards the kind of plectra 1 A . J . See also:Ellis (History of Musical Pitch, p . 318) See also:sees the B in Mersenne's outline diagram.earliest used we have no evidence . The little See also:crow-auill points project from centred See also:tongues in uprights of wood known as " jacks " (fig . 7), which also carry the dampers, and rising by the depression of the keys in front, the quills set the strings vibrating as they See also:pluck them in passing, springs at first of See also:steel, later of bristle, giving See also:energy to the twang and governing their return J . C . See also:Scaliger in Poetices libri septem (1561, p . 51 . C . 1.) states that the Clavicimbalum and Harpichordum of his boyhood are now called Spinets on account of those See also:quill points (ab illis mucronibus), and attributes the introduction of the name " spinetta " to them (from See also:spina, a See also:thorn) . We will leave harpichordum for the present, but the early identity of clavicimbalum and spinetta is certainly proved . Scaliger's See also:etymology remained unquestioned until spinet . Signor Ponsicchi of Florence discovered another derivation . He found in a rare See also:book entitled Conclusione nel Buono dell' organo, di D . Adriano See also:Banchieri (See also:Bologna, 16o8), the following passage, which translated reads: " Spinetta was thus named from the inventor of that oblong form, who was one See also:Maestro Giovanni Spinetti, a Venetian; and I have seen one of those instruments, in the possession of See also:Francesco Stivori, organist of the magnificent community of Montagnana, within which was this inscription—Joannes Spinetvs Venetvs fecit, A.D . 1503." Scaliger's and Banchieri's statements may be combined, as there is no discrepancy of dates, or we may rely upon whichever seems to us to have the greater authority, always bearing in mind that neither invalidates the other . The introduction of crow-quill points, and adaptation to an oblong case of an instrument previously in a trapeze form, are synchronous; but we must accept 1503 as a late date for one of Spinetti's instruments, seeing that the altered form had already become common, as shown by Virdung, in another See also:country as early as 1511 . After this date there are frequent references to spinets in public records and other documents, and we have fortunately the instruments themselves to put in evidence, preserved in public museums and in private collections . A spinet dated 1490 was shown at Bologna in 1888; another old spinet in the See also:Conservatoire, Paris, is a pentagonal instrument made by Francesco di Portalupis at See also:Verona, 1523 . The Milanese See also:Rossi were famous spinet-makers, and have been accredited (La Nobilitd di Milano, 1595) with an improvement in the form which we believe was the recessing of the keyboard, -a feature which had previously entirely projected; by the recessing a greater width was obtained for the sound-board . The spinets by Annibale Rosso at See also:South See also:Kensington, dated r |