Harpsichord is a musical instrument that resembles a small piano. It is used as a solo instrument, in a chamber-music ensemble, or with an orchestra.
A harpsichord is smaller and lighter than a piano and has one or two keyboards, usually called manuals. Like a piano, it produces sounds by causing metal strings to vibrate. But the strings of a harpsichord are plucked, not struck like those of a piano. As a result of these differences in size and mechanical action, a harpsichord produces a tone that is clearer and livelier than that of a piano.
The strings of a harpsichord are stretched over two strips of wood called the bridge and the nut. The bridge is glued to a thin sheet of wood called the soundboard. The nut is glued to a block of wood that runs parallel to the keyboard and holds the tuning pins. When a string is plucked, its vibrations are transmitted by the bridge to the soundboard. The soundboard then transmits the vibrations to the sides and bottom of the instrument, called the case, and into the air.
A tone is produced by the plucking of the strings. Sometimes two or three strings are plucked together. Each string is plucked by a small piece of quill or leather called a plectrum. The plectrum sticks out from a piece of wood called a jack. When a player strikes a key, the jack rises and the plectrum plucks a string. When the player releases the key, the jack drops. Then, when the plectrum touches the string, it swings back on a wooden pivot called a tongue, and passes the string without plucking it a second time. A damper (felt pad) on the jack then stops the string from vibrating.
Loading the player...Harpsichord
Most harpsichords have two or three strips of wood called registers that are used to move the sets of jacks into or out of contact with their sets of strings. Often one set of strings sounds an octave higher than the other, and can be used to add brilliance to the sound.
The harpsichord first appeared in the 1300’s, but no one knows who invented it. By the late 1500’s, the instrument had become popular. During the 1600’s, Italian and Flemish craftworkers built simple harpsichords to accompany solo performers. Musicians of the 1700’s played richly decorated two-manual harpsichords. Famous composers of harpsichord music include Johann Sebastian Bach, Francois and Louis Couperin, Girolamo Frescobaldi, and Domenico Scarlatti.
By the late 1700’s, the piano began to replace the harpsichord. But the harpsichord has regained its musical importance since the 1940’s.
See also Bach, Johann Sebastian; Couperin, François; Landowska, Wanda; Scarlatti, Domenico; Piano (History).
