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The New Grove musical dictionary summarizes the earliest historical traces of the harpsichord: "The earliest known reference to a harpsichord dates from 1397, when a jurist in Padua wrote that a certain Hermann Poll claimed to have invented an instrument called the 'clavicembalum'; [1] and the earliest known representation of a harpsichord is a sculpture (see below) in an altarpiece of 1425 ...
Tuning an instrument nowadays usually starts with setting an A; historically it would commence from a C or an F. The harpsichord uses the bass clef (F clef). Some modern instruments are built with keyboards that can shift sideways, allowing the player to align the mechanism with strings at either A = 415 Hz or A = 440 Hz.
History of the harpsichord, Edward L. Kottick, 2003, 1.ed., Indiana University Press Ruckers A harpsichord building tradition, Grant O´Brien, 1990, 1. ed., Cambridge University Press A Performer's Guide to Renaissance Music, Jeffery T. Kite-Powell , 2007, Indiana University Press
Such instruments were harshly criticized during the 1960s by Zuckermann, who described their sound as feeble and their appearance as tubby, a betrayal of the tradition of beauty seen in historical instruments. Harpsichords played today tend to follow closely the building practices established in the historical period.
Musical Instruments and Their Decoration. Cincinnati, Ohio: Seven Hills Books,. ISBN 0-911403-17-5. Russell, Raymond (1973). The Harpsichord and Clavichord: An Introductory Study, 2nd ed. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-04795-5. Yorke, James (1986). Keyboard Instruments at the Victoria and Albert Museum. London Victoria and Albert Museum.
Spinet by Zenti from 1637, now in the Musical Instrument Museum in Brussels. The angling of the strings also had consequences for tone quality: generally, it was not possible to make the plucking points as close to the nut as in a regular harpsichord. Thus spinets normally had a slightly different tone quality, with fewer higher harmonics ...
The archicembalo / ɑːr k i ˈ tʃ ɛ m b əl oʊ / (or arcicembalo, / ɑːr tʃ i ˈ tʃ ɛ m b əl oʊ /) was a musical instrument described by Nicola Vicentino in 1555. This was a harpsichord built with many extra keys and strings, enabling experimentation in microtonality and just intonation.
Musicians who play the harpsichord are known as harpsichordists. This list includes post 19th-century harpsichordists. This list includes post 19th-century harpsichordists. Notable earlier harpsichordists mostly appear on the list of Baroque composers .