clavessin

The harpsichord is a keyboard instrument in which the strings are plucked, rather than hit with a hammer (which is the mechanism for the piano, a more recent development). The distinctive sound of the harpsichord creates an almost immediately association with the baroque era.

Talk about that when you've mastered the clavichord touch. You can play anything else the 40 piano of the harpsichord.

The harpsichord was a popular keyboard instrument in the Baroque era, from the 16th to the 18th century. However, it gradually fell out of favor as new keyboard instruments were developed, such as the piano, which became the dominant keyboard instrument by the end of the 18th century.

The harpsichord and clavichord are keyboard instruments dating back to the Middle Ages. The harpsichord produces sound by plucking strings with a quill while the clavichord produces sound by a metal tangent that strikes the string. Both instruments were used throughout Europe in the Baroque and Renaissance periods.

While hammers are used to strike the strings of a piano, the strings are plucked in a harpsichord. For this reason, the piano falls under the percussion instrument category, while the harpsichord is a string instrument.

Let me tell you easily about the differences between a piano and a harpsichord. A piano is a “struck string instrument” that makes sounds by striking strings with hammers and vibrating them. A harpsichord is a “plucked string instrument” that makes sounds by plucking strings with plectrums and vibrating them.

Alone among the forerunners of the piano, the clavichord can achieve dynamic variation - piano, forte, crescendo, diminuendo - by the player's touch alone. It can produce vibrato, or bebung, if finger pressure on the key is varied. Its tone is silvery and soft, best suited for intimate music such as C.P.E.

The clavichord produces sound by striking brass or iron strings with small metal blades called tangents. Vibrations are transmitted through the bridge(s) to the soundboard.

While playing the piano, you have full control over the volume of sound produced, meaning you can either play soft or loud depending on the way the key is pressed. A harpsichord player does not have such control. No matter how hard or soft you press, the sound will always have the same volume.

Beethoven is associated with the harpsichord as early as 1783, when at the age of 12, he was appointed Cembalist (Harpsichordist) of the Theatre Orchestra in Bonn. The child prodigy had published his first work a year earlier, Variations for Harpsichord on a March by Mr Dresler.

Bach's first biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, on the strength of interviews with the composer's sons, reported that the clavichord was Bach's favorite keyboard instrument.

In summary: apart from piano, Beethoven played harpsichord, clavichord, organ, violin and viola.