Clavicytherium construction

August 7, 2023 2:50 PM

How to fit the keyboard onto an upright harpsichord. The oldest known surviving stringed keyboard instrument is a clavicytherium too. They don't all have soundboards as big as the case, which puzzles me but is very pretty. Tabletop version with singer; lautenwerk ("gut"-strung) version.
posted by clew (7 comments total)

I was grumpy about the "designed" piano that maybe wouldn't work and we don't know how it would sound, and realized I had an example of the opposite approach.
posted by clew at 3:19 PM on August 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

It’s amazing how graceful and how much better the gut strung version in the last video sounds compared to the versions with metal strings.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 4:00 PM on August 7, 2023

I love the sound too — I believe it’s much quieter than metal strings are, so never common in live performance.

Even metal string ones can be more or less “jangly” — we’ve had a professional harpsichordist, if she’s still around maybe she can explain.
posted by clew at 4:24 PM on August 7, 2023

I need to watch this to make a worthwhile comment (and will), but it warms my heart a little that my post got someone else to make a post, even if it was by annoying them.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 4:41 PM on August 7, 2023 [6 favorites]

I have to say, I think my favorite is the tabletop version, which is so teeny yet so serious, like a small dog guarding its home. Is there some...map...timeline...graphic...something, showing all the permutations of "i press a key and music comes out" style instruments out there?
posted by mittens at 4:54 PM on August 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

Thanks for sharing this. And it brings to mind yet another instrument with a long history of development, the clavichord.
posted by 15L06 at 5:33 PM on August 7, 2023

I can't believe I was in London and didn't know about this place. That sent me down a very enjoyable rabbit hole.
posted by olykate at 8:59 PM on August 7, 2023