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Harpsichord
The ancestor of the piano, the harpsichord was first invented 1514. Harpsichords work with quills plucking the strings opposed to being hit with hammers like a piano.
116 Questions
Do harpsichords always have two rows?
Most professional harpsichordists/musicians use a double manual harpsichord (with 2 keyboards.)
There are a lot of harpsichords with only one, (they are more affordable than a double manual.)
And there are very very few harpsichords in the world that have 3 keyboards.
What kind of music is the harpsichord famous for?
The harpsichord is originally famous for participating in FOLK music, a it has sharp, high pitched notes. FOLK music is quick and has a continuous speed so the notes need to be sharp and quick.
What instrument replaced the harpsichord during the classical period?
The piano/pianoforte is the keyboard instrument that succeeded the harpsichord. It rose in popularity during the late stages of the Classical period and beginnings of the Romantic era.
What are facts about the harpsichord?
Italian harpsichords are lightly constructed, Flemish harpsichords are more solid and are very decorative. Here is a good website http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/harpsich.htm
harpsichords are completly made out of grass
When the piano was invented was it used instead of the harpsichord?
Yes, the harpsichord a keyboard musical instrument that plucked a string when a key was pressed.
When the piano was first developed it was called the "pianoforte" (meaning soft "piano" and loud "forte" in Italian) because it produced a much wider range of sound than the older harpsichord. But the name was soon shortened.
Why does a harpsichord have more than one keyboard?
The second manual on some harpsichords activates another set of strings, which have a somewhate softer nasal sound. Also, if combined with the first manual it produces a richer sound.
How is the sound produced in a harpsichord?
Sound on the harp is produced by plucking the strings. The finger plucks the string, setting it into vibration. This wave of vibration travels down the string to the wooden soundboard where it is amplified (or made louder). On Irish harps the fingernails are used to pluck. On large "pedal" harps or "concert" harps, the pad of the finger is usually used. However, there are examples of using nearly everything; from the knuckles and palms to wooden and metal tuning keys.
Who are some famous piano players?
Classical pianists:
Muzio Clementi (1752-1832)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)
Franz Liszt (1813-1886)
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
Bela Bartok (1881-1945)
Modern pianists:
Wladziu Liberace (1919-1987)
Victor Borge (1909-2000)
Ray Charles (1930-2004)
Evgeny Kissin (1971- )
Lang Lang (1982- )
Jazz pianists:
Jelly Roll Morton (1885-1941)
Rock pianists:
Tori Amos (1963- )
What advantages did the piano have over the clavichord and the harpsichord?
The main advantages are that it can produce a wider range of volumes, ranging from very soft to very loud, so it can be used to play musical pieces with more emotion and be used both in concert halls and at homes. Besides that, it can sustain notes much longer than the both the clavichord and the harpsichord, and since today there are many more pianos manufacturers than clavichords or hapsichords they're also generally cheaper, specially if a electronic piano is considered.
The piano's original name was "pianoforte", the two Italian words for "soft" and "loud".
Its clear predecessor was the clavichord, which featured one "tangent" per key, with a simple lever mechanism. The tangent looks somewhat like a chisel: it is a rod with one end widened, forming an upper surface which resembles a section of the bridge which defines one end of the vibrating string. The strings crossed such a continuous bridge which was mounted on the soundboard, and were damped at the other end with felt or leather. When the player depressed his end of a key, the other end brought the tangent up to strike the string, both setting it to vibrate and defining the length of string to vibrate with the tangent. Muting of strings simply involved releasing the key so the tangent was removed, and letting the damping material absorb the vibration energy. Because of the simple mechanism, the player could control the relative volume of the note, impart vibrato to the string, and to some extent controlling its pitch, by changing how hard the player pressed the key, causing the tangent to stretch the string. The down side of the clavichord is that it is a very quiet instrument: modern listeners need time away from the noise of modern life before they can hear the instrument from more than a few feet away. In the time of Bach, this was hardly a problem, and it is believed that the clavichord was Bach's favorite instrument for composing.
The harpsichord used a more complicated mechanism to raise a "jack" on the string end of each key. The jack plucked a string with a quill, so named because they were cut from bits of goose quill. The jack had an 'escapement' which allowed the quill to retract while the jack returned to its resting position, which kept the string from being plucked again when the key was released. A piece of felt, fixed to the jack, rested on the string to damp vibration and end the note. The jack-and-quill system did not allow the user much variation in volume, but certainly did not impede musicians from imparting emotion to the music they played upon it: instead of simply changing volume to bring out a line, players would control the duration of notes, and to some extent, the variation of the tempo, to shape the impact of the music on the listener. Additionally, some volume control was provided by multiple sets of strings with multiple jacks for each note, allowing the player (using a lever system) to engage only one, up to as many as four jacks at a time.
Both the clavichord and harpsichord were considerably lighter than the modern piano, and could be carried by a single person (two or three for the largest of harpsichords) without injury.
The piano is really dated from Christofori, whose invention was transmitted through an article written about his fortepianos to Gottfried Silberman, who in 1725, built two of them. Bach was said not to have been initially impressed with the instruments. The instrument didn't come into popularity, really, until a group of piano makers (known as the 12 disciples), some of whom were Silberman's students, went to England in about 1760, and J. C. Bach gave what is believed to be the first public concert on an instrument made by one of them (Zumpe). By 1773, Clementi's first piano sonata (op 2, written specifically for piano) was composed. In 1783, Broadwood added the sustaining pedal. In this period, pianos came in two varieties, the square pianos of England, and the Viennese piano. Mozart made the piano desirable using the latter, which offered a lighter touch, crisper trebles and better damping mechanism than the English variety.
The pianoforte used hammers covered in leather, and an escapement system which (in the grand-configuration) allowed re-launching the hammer after it had already struck the string without it having to come all the way to rest. Eventually, felt covers replaced leather on the hammers, the addition of a metal support (harp) allowed increased string tension, wrapped bass strings allowed some reduction in instrument length, and tripling the trebles and doubling the tenors allowed balancing the sound of the newer designs. This is really the point at which the pianoforte became the modern piano.
The sustain mechanism allows sustaining a single note by holding that key down, and a second mechanism connected to a pedal to lock the dampers for individual keys if they are raised. A second pedal lifts all of the dampers at once, while a third shifts the entire mechanism, keyboard, hammers and escapement, to allow the hammers to hit only one string in each duple or triple. It is this last pedal which gives the piano its amazing sustain: the struck string brings the other strings in its group to vibration slowly as it reduces its own volume, causing a bell-like beginning, and carrying the vibration on for a very long time as the energy of vibration is traded back and forth between the strings.
So the Pianos major benefits over its predecessors, from a mechanical point of view, are its ability to vary the volume of each individual key under the control of the player, its sustain mechanisms, its greater overall volume capability, and a much larger existing repertoire of music written specifically to benefit from these abilities. The piano is also capable of playing, effectively, much of the repertoire of the centuries before it was invented, while the clavichord and harpsichord would have a hard time with the majority of music written for piano!
On the other hand, the grand piano is anything but a good apartment-mate, it is far too heavy for even four people to transport any distance without considerable use of lifting and rolling mechanisms, and the floor upon which it is played should be reinforced! As early as the British square pianos, efforts were taken to reduce the size of the instrument, and upright pianos, with a variety of mechanisms to imitate the action of grand pianos, have been produced in parallel with grand pianos for two centuries. The smallest uprights compromise sound with string length limits, while the largest of them are heavy enough to endanger weak floors.
Harps can come in a range of sizes. Possibly the smallest size that harps are made is about 60cm tall, and about 40cm long, and 10cm wide. Those harps are often known as lap harps, and are levered. The largest size that lever harps reach is around 1.7m, 1m long, and about 30cm wide. Pedal harps go from around 1.6m tall, 80cm long, and 40cm wide to nearly 2m tall, over 1m long, and around 60cm wide. Basically, the size of a harp really depends on the type (pedal or lever), the maker, and the model.
Did Mozart write music for the harpsichord?
Mozart only started playing the piano later on in life, and even then he continued to rely on the harpsichord until his death. He is known to have still played even his very last works on the harpsichord. One example is his penultimate "Coronation" concerto.
For some recordings check out Queen's chamber trio playing the 3 last trios ("the 1788 trios"). Tobias Koch and Lisa Marie Landgraf playing violin sonatas kv301-6 plus Andante and Fuge kv402. Howard Davis and Virginia Black violin sonatas kv377, 379, 305, 301.
Solo sonatas and klavierstuck: Catherine Perrin sonata in B flat kv570. Siegbert Rampe plays sonatas including sonata in a minor kv310, Ton Koopman plays klavierstuck. Music for 4 hands is played by Patrick Ayrton & Wolfgang Glüxam Harpsichord concerto in E flat kv 271 is pl;ayed by Igor Kipnis.
It was also customary to use a harpsichord CONTINUO in operas, symphonies and concertos until the close of the 18th century. It is therefore expected in Mozart's compositions in these genres. For some recordings see Jed Wentz's direction of La Clemenza di Tito, and Harnoncourt's Idomeneo. Symphonies, check out Charles McKerras, Trevor Pinnock and Christopher Hogwood. Roy Goodman directs the basset horn concerto and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Hogwood directs the violin concertos and the oboe concerto.
How is the harpsichord differant to the grand piano?
Hello Dear, Basic difference between harmonium and piano is in the technology of sound production and the keys each instrument have. Harmonium produces sound by air pressure which is generated by periodic motion of bellows where piano produces sound by hitting the cords with hammer.
another major difference is in the keyboard. The Standard Indian Harmonium has 36 keys with 3 octaves which is know as "mandra" "madhya" and "taar" saptak where piano has total 88 keys with 7 octaves.
I hope this may clear your understanding more about difference between Indian harmonium and a piano
How is the vibration caused in a harpsichord?
The strings are plucked by leather or quill points connected with the keys
Who invented the first harpsichord?
The earliest record refers to a certain Herman Poll in 1397 who claimed to have invented a similar instrument called a Clavicembalum'. This is the earliest known representation of a Harpsichord
All that I do know, is that it was invented in the 14th century, but nobody knows who the inventor is.
Most harpsichords are similar in size to a small (not full size) grand piano.
Roughly, 1.5m wide by 2m long by 1m high.
Where can you find a picture of a harp?
A harp can be small and held partly on one's lap. The first video is a clip from Austrailia's Got Talent showing a small handheld lap harp and a later performance with a floor version.
Here is a second video with full views of full-size harps:
Did Johann Sebastian Bach write for the harpsichord?
Yes many peices.
Without meaning to contradict the above, the actual number of Mr. Bach's harpsichord pieces is likely unknown since it isknown that much of his music did not survive the centuries. In any case he did, indeed, write music for the harpsichord, primarily between 1708 and 1717 during his tenure as organist and violinist, and eventually, concertmaster, at the court of Duke Wilhelm Ernst in Weimar, Germany.
How is sound from a harpsichord produced?
When a key is pressed, a lever moves a jack up toward the string. On the end of this jack is a small plectrum, which plucks the string to make the sound. On the way down, it doesn't make a sound because there is a tiny mechanism which moves the plectrum away from the string.
The downside is that you can't change the dynamics (volume) as it doesn't matter how hard you press the key, the pluck will always sound pretty much the same. One of the benefits of the piano!
and is also known as a stringed keyboard..
from mean.
Famous orchestras using the harpsichord?
Francois Couperin, Johann Sebastian Bach, Louis-Claude Daquin,Mozart, Jean-Philippe Rameau and Henry Purcell.
