Harpsichord

Famous harpsichord players of the past include Wanda Landowska, who is often credited with popularizing the instrument in the 20th century, and Scott Ross, known for his extensive recordings of Baroque repertoire. Other notable figures include Ralph Kirkpatrick, an esteemed performer and scholar of the harpsichord, and Kenneth Gilbert, recognized for his interpretations of French Baroque music. These musicians significantly contributed to the revival and appreciation of the harpsichord in classical music.

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.

Percussion. It is a stringed instrument, not percussion.

Yes: clavecin, cembalo, virginal, virginals.

but that might be incorrect- p.s how do you pronnunce the last 2?

1. The way they generate sound - the harpsichord plucks the string while the piano hammers it, and the electric piano produces sound digitally on the columns.

2. The sound - the harpsichord has a more metalic sound, a cross between guitar and harp, while the piano has a more refined soft-edged sound; There are also no louds or softs in harpsichord. The notes have always the same volume; the sound on a hapsichord also fades away faster; The electric piano is the only one that can simulate sounds from various instruments, though generally not as good as the instrument itself.

3. The existence of pedals - the harpsichord has no pedals;

4. Appearance - pianos are generally paint black, or wooden, while the haprsichords usually have various paintings. Electric pianos have a variety of plain colours, from metal, to white, to black, etc.

5. Technology - from the most advanced to the least: electric piano, piano, harpsichord.

6. Way of functioning - unlike pianos and harpsichords which are purely mechanic, electric pianos run on electricity, and depend on various electric circuits to work.

wat wat up the but ? wat wat up the but ?

The Harpsichord was never a standard symphony instrument- but may well have been used in operas. Scarlatti wrote sonatas for the Harpsichord- these now played mainly on the Pianoforte- but there is brisk trade in replica and rebuilt Harpsichords- even some Jazz and Rock groups used them for their unusual harmonics- between a piano and a Harp- even a touch of the Guitar sound as the strings are plucked ( mechanically) rather then being struck with a mallet- as on pianos. There was also a short-lived Clavichord revival pushed by some German firms- electric clavichords were made- around l963, the idea did not take off- imagine if the Beatles used one- While my Clavitar gently weeps!- Clavitar was a sort of clavichord ( keyed- piano- Guitar) hybrid and while occasionally used, never really caught on.

Nobody knows quite where, but it is accepted that in the mid 1300s, in Europe, a keyboard was added to a psaltery (a plucked harp-like instrument) to enable the playing of chords. After some evolution, we find it in the (then independant) state of Flanders as what we know as the modern harpsichord around 1400. It didn't really take off until around the 1500s, though.

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Yes, but only to the extent of being stringed keyboard instruments. They differ considerably so sound very different, as the piano's action is percussive whilst the harpsichord plucks the strings. The harpsichord was invented before the piano.

There are many differences between the harpsichord and the piano, in fact, more differences than there are similarities.

First, a quick review of the similarities:
Both instruments have a keyboard, upon which the notes are laid out in this fashion: the 'natural notes', i.e., the notes of the C major scale, are laid out in larger keys which extend in front of the keys used to produce sharps and flats, which are colored differently from the natural notes and extend above them. The sharps and flats are grouped in 3's and 2's.
Both instruments have at least one version that holds the strings flat and parallel to the floor. (The piano has versions which hold the strings perpindicular to the floor, which are quite common, and the harpsichord had versions which held the strings in this orientation, although they were quite rare.)
Both instruments provide musical sounds by a mechanism which starts with the performer's finger on a key at one end and ends with a string vibrating on a soundboard at the other.

And there, the similarities end.

Harpsichords are tranditionally built from different woods from the piano, and are of much lighter construction, because the strings of the harpsichord are not under nearly so much tension as the piano. The key colors used for contrast between the naturals and sharps/flats is white/black for the piano and dark/light for the harpsichord, i.e., Middle C is ivory or ivorite-covered (white) on the piano, and C# is ebony or black plastic. On a harpsichord, Middle C will be a dark natural wood, and C# will be a much lighter natural wood.

The harpsicord makes a note by a plectrum called a "quill", mounted in a sliding apparatus called a "Jack", which is raised by the action of the key, causing the quill to "pluck" the string. The piano, on the other hand, strikes the string with a complex mechanism ending with a felt-covered hammer. The mechanism is called an "escapement", because it is designed to catch the hammer when it falls back and reset the mechanism for an immediate restrike without resetting all the way to the rest position. (The harpsichord jack, and therefore the key, must be able to fall far enough that the quill can 'reset' to restrike the note. The escapement mechanism is quite different between upright and grand pianos, but still more similar than either is to the Harpsichord's jack and quill arrangement.

The piano allows the hammer to strike the strings with different levels of force in direct proportion to the force that the player imparts to the key, while the harpsichord cannot be caused to pluck more vigorously or less vigorously. Because of this, the piano is capable of a great range of volume, and each note of the harpsichord is roughly the same volume, all the time. (Because of this, harpsichord players emphasized notes by adjusting timing, and increased the volume of notes by levers which added more sets of strings and jacks and quills to be plucked by each key.)

The piano's strings are thick and short and under high tension, causing the shorter ones to sound in a manner closer to bars of metal than strings. This causes the harmonics of the strings to be higher in pitch than they are on the harpsichord, so that octaves must be tuned sharper on the piano as you go up and flatter as you go down. This is called "stretch". If the harpsichord's A is tuned to 440 cycles per second, the next octave up's A will be 880 cycles per second. If the piano's A is tuned to 440 CPS, the next octave A will have to be tuned higher than 880, possibly as high as 881 or 882!

Prior to 1770 or so, the piano was practically non-existent (although another instrument, called the Clavichord, which struck the strings with a metal "tangent" which was mounted on the back end of the keys, existed. The clavichord was quiet, though, and can hardly be heard by modern concert-goers until after 15 minutes or so of utter silence!) So it is fairly safe to say that no music was written before then for the piano. The harpsichord went out of style nearly as fast as the piano came into style, so it is very rare to find music intentionally written for it after 1830-or-so. There are a very few modern compositions for harpsichord, and the majority of these are for film or TV scores, where the unusual-to-modern-ears sound of the harpsichord forms a characteristic backdrop to the scene in view.

A small harpsichord can be lifted easily by one man. The largest of them may require as many as 3 men to lift, but no heavy equipment. A modern upright piano of the smallest sort can be handled by one man with special devices, or two men without. The largest modern grand pianos cannot be lifted without the assistance of hydraulic lifting apparatus or chain-falls, and cannot be moved unless mounted on special large wheels even by 4 or 5 men.

Yes. The soundboard is usually made of wood like spruce and is installed in the case. The strings are attached to the tuning pins on one end, then go over a wooden bridge glued to the soundboard and are pinned to a wooden rail glued over the soundboard on the other end with what are called hitchpins. The sound is transferred to the soundboard by the strings vibrating against the bridge (mostly). The strings are plucked when the player presses a key which is really a lever that raises something usually called a plectrum (like a pick for a guitar) which causes the string to vibrate.

What do pedals on a piano do? The three pedals that have become more or less standard on the modern piano are the following. From left to right: una corda, sostenuto and damper. The damper pedal (also the sustaining pedal or loud pedal) is the most frequently used. It is placed as the rightmost pedal in the group. Every string on the piano, except the top two octaves, is equipped with a damper, which is a padded device that prevents the string from vibrating. The damper is raised off the string whenever the key for that note is pressed. When the damper pedal is pressed, all the dampers on the piano are lifted at once, so that every string can vibrate. This serves two purposes. First, it assists the pianist in producing a legato (playing smoothly connected notes) in passages where no fingering is available to make this otherwise possible. Second, raising the damper pedal causes all the strings to vibrate sympathetically with whichever notes are being played, which greatly enriches the piano's tone. The una corda pedal (also the soft pedal) is placed leftmost in the row of pedals. On a grand piano this pedal shifts the whole action to one side, slightly to the right, so that hammers that normally strike all three of the strings for a note strike only two of them. This softens the note and modifies its tone quality. On many upright pianos, the pedal operates a mechanism which moves the hammers' resting position closer to the strings. This reduces the volume as the hammers have less distance to travel, but this does not change tone quality in the way the una corda pedal does on a grand piano. However when this pedal is depressed on the vertical, it changes the action creating what is called lost motion, that is the jack is now further from the hammer butt, and now has to travel further to engage the hammer. This lost motion changes the touch and feel of the playing action, and as a result many pianists never use the soft pedal on a vertical. Since the grand piano soft pedal simply shifts the action sideways, it does not change the touch and feel of the action, another advantage grand pianos have over vertical pianos. The sostenuto pedal (also the middle pedal) keeps raised any damper that was raised at the moment the pedal is depressed. This makes it possible to sustain some notes (by depressing the sostenuto pedal before notes to be sustained are released) while the player's hands are free to play other notes. This can be useful for musical passages with pedal points and other tricky or impossible situations. The sostenuto pedal was the last of the three pedals to be added to the standard piano, and to this day, many pianos are not equipped with a sostenuto pedal. Almost all modern grand pianos have a sostenuto pedal, while nearly all upright pianos do not. Some upright pianos have a celeste pedal (practice pedal) in place of the sostenuto. This pedal, which can usually be locked in place by depressing it and pushing it to one side, drops a strip of felt between the hammers and the strings so that all the notes are greatly muted-- a handy feature for those who wish to practice without disturbing everyone else in the vicinity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano#Pedals

the harpsichord comes from many countries in Europe like Italy for example.

By plucking a string, a low or a high sound is made!
Harps are played by placing the larger column on your right shoulder and playing the correct strings with your fingers. (Excluding the pinkie finger) Depending on what harp you have, you may switch the pitch of the note to sharp or flat by using pedals (using feet) or levers (using hands). It's a very difficult instrument to play, but it's beautiful. I know because i play the harp. Hope this helps!

It was popular since its invention at the XV (15th) century, because it was the first keyboarded instrument, and was regarded as a superior, upper class instrument. However it slowly got less popular with the appearance of the piano in the early XVIII (18th) century.

Probably the most famous French player right now hailing from France, is Cristobal Huet, a goaltender for the Chicago Blackhawks. Philippe Bozon is the most accomplished French hockey player. He participated in four Olympic tournaments and another 12 IIHF World Championships, where he averaged just over one point per game. He also became the first Frenchman to play in the NHL, playing 163 games with St. Louis from 1992-95. In the French League, Bozon was named the best player in 1989 and the rookie of the year in 1984. He won three French Championships in 1984, 1988 and 1991 and then moved onto Germany, where he won another three titles in one of Europe’s premiere leagues with Adler Mannheim from 1996-99. Bozon ended his 22-year career in 2006. He was inducted in the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 2008.

The strings are plucked by a plectrum, which is on the jack.

Harps come is a wide range of sizes.

Pedal harps, the kind used in orchestras, range from 70 to 85 pounds (30 to 40 kg). It takes two people to put one of those into a vehicle.

Lever harps are significantly lighter. I have a large (38 string) lever harp that weighs 28 pounds (13 kg). Small (22 string) harps can be as light as 5 pounds (2.3 kg) and can be played sitting on your lap. Also, at least one harp builder has begun making a large (36 string) lever harp using carbon composite material--it's only 8 pounds (3.6 kg)!

Lyre, zither, psaltery or kithara.

Unless you have a pickup to hook the cello to an amp and therefore adjust the volume using the knob, you would have to simply add more pressure to the bow as you play the more pressure the louder you play the less the quieter. Also a fair bit of skill is needed as you will have to hold the bow right and create smooth even bow movements to produce the desired sound.

Well, anyone in the middle class or above living from the late Renaissance through the middle of the classical era likely encountered a harpsichord sometime in their lives. Also, the harpsichord has enjoyed a renewed sense of popularity since the early music revival began in the mid 20th century.