EARLY KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS

ORGAN

CLAVICHORD

HARPSICHORD

PIANOFORTE
EARLY KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS
HISTORY

MECHANICS

TONE PRODUCTION

TONE CHARACTERISTICS
CONTROLLED BY PLAYER

PERFORMER’S MEANS
 EARLY KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS

PERFORMER’S MEANS

ARTICULATION
CONNECTION/SEPARATION OF
SUCCESSIVE NOTES

Grove Dictionary
 EARLY KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS

PERFORMER’S MEANS

AGOGIC
DELAYING OR ACCELERATING THE BEAT

MODIFICATIONS OF THE BASIC TEMPO

DELIBERATE ABANDONMENT OF
MECHANICAL REGULARITY IN NOTE
VALUES
Grove Dictionary
Clavichord, modern copy of an unsigned fretted clavichord
conserved in Namur, Belgium. Copy built by Pierre Verbeek.
 Clavichord Action

Terminorum
Musicae
Index
Septem
Lingue
Redactus
At least in the beginning, the clavichord is
unquestionably best suited for learning, for on no
other keyboard instrument is it possible to achieve
finesse in playing as well as on this one.

Daniel Gottlob Turk, School of Clavier Playing

(Klavierschule, 1789)
Pedal Clavichord

Eastman School of Music, Rochester

 Bebung

C.P.E. Bach (1714 – 1788)

Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen, 1853
Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments
Bebung

Daniel Gottlob Türk (1750 – 1813)

Clavierschule, oder Anweisung zum Clavierspielen für Lehrer und Lernende
(Leipzig and Halle,1789)
School of Clavier Playing or Instructions in Playing the Clavier for Teachers and Students
 Harpsichord
Clavecin (French), Cembalo (German), Cembalo, (Italian)

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Harpsichord Action

Terminorum
Musicae
Index
Septem
Lingue
Redactus
 Harpsichord Action

Grove Dictionary
Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1732)
Maffei’s account of the fortepiano in the Giornale (1711)
If the value of an invention can be measured by its novelty and its difficulty,
then the one we are about to describe is certainly not inferior to any others of
our time.
Anyone who enjoys music will tell you that one of the principal sources of
pleasure for listeners is the difference between softness and loudness (that is in
[differentiating] [rhetorical] questions and answers [proposte, risposte], or when
a diminution of sound is achieved by allowing the voice to fade little by little
and then a sudden loudness occurs. This artifice is used frequently and to
marvellous effect in the great concerts given in Rome, with incredible delight to
whomever is pleased by the perfection of art.
Stringed instruments are excellent for these purposes, but the gravecembalo is
deprived of the opportunity to effect them. Only he with an inordinately vain
imagination would attempt to make a [keyboard] instrument with this capability.
However, just such an invention has been not only happily conceived but also
made in Florence by Bartolommeo Cristofali [sic], a Paduan, salaried cembalist
of the Most Serene Prince of Tuscany. He has already made three at the normal
size of other gravecembali, and all have been perfectly built.
The production of these loud or soft tones depends on the amount of force used
by the player, such that besides hearing loud and soft sounds [the listener] will
also hear the [same] degradation [gradual diminution of tone] and diversity [?]
of the voice [as one might hear] in a cello.
Fortepiano

Early Music, February 2005

Cristofori action
Maffei’s diagram
published
in 1711

A. String
B. Frame of the keyboard
C. The key or first lever, which at its extremity raises the second lever
D. The block on the first lever by which it acts
E. The second lever, on each side of which is a jawbone-shaped piece to support the little tongue or hopper
F. The pivot of the second lever
G. The moveable tongue (hopper), which, being raised by the second lever (E), forces the hammer upwards
H. The jawbone-shaped pieces between which the hopper is pivoted
I. The strong brass wire pressed together at the top, which keeps the hopper in its place
L. The spring of brass wire that goes under the hopper and holds it pressed firmly against the wire that is behind it
M. The receiver, in which all the buts [butts] of the hammers rest
N. The circular part of the hammers, which rests in the receiver
O. The hammer, which, when pressed upwards by the hopper, strikes the string with the leather on its top
P. The strings of silk, crossed, on which the stems, or shanks, of the hammers rest
Q. The end of the second lever (E), which becomes lowered by the act of striking the key
R. The dampers, which are lowered when the key is touched, leaving the string free to vibrate, and then returning
to their places, atop the sound
Piano Encyclopedia
S. Part of the frame to strengthen the receiver
 Sonatas for the harpsichord
with soft and loud,
popularly called the hammered
harpsichord,
dedicated
to his Royal Highness the Most
Serene Dom Antonio, Infante
of Portugal, and composed by
Lodovico Giustini of Pistoia,
Op. 1.
Florence, 1732.
LUTE -HARPSICHORD
Portative

Metropolitan Museum of Art

 Positive

Metropolitan Museum of Art

 Spinet

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Virginal

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pedal Piano

Metropolitan Museum of Art