Harpsichord - musical instrument - history, photos, videos. Keyboard musical instruments What role did the crow feather play in the harpsichord?

HARPSICHORD

Surely at concerts you have noticed a musical instrument similar to a piano, but much smaller in size, with several keyboards and a completely different, ringing metallic sound? The name of this instrument is harpsichord (derives from the French word). In each country it is called differently: in France and Russia it is a harpsichord, in Italy it is a cymbalo (and sometimes a clavicembalo), in England it is a harpsichord. The harpsichord is a keyboard stringed musical instrument in which the sound is produced by plucking.

Sound, timbre:

The sound of the harpsichord is difficult to confuse with any other instrument; it is special, brilliant and abrupt. As soon as you hear this sound, you immediately imagine ancient dances, balls, and noble court ladies in magnificent dresses with unimaginable hairstyles. The main difference between the harpsichord is that its sound cannot smoothly change dynamics, like other instruments. In order to solve this problem, the craftsmen came up with the idea of ​​adding other registers that are activated using manual switches and levers. They are located on the sides of the keyboard. A little later, foot switches also appeared to make playing easier.
Interesting Facts:

• The harpsichord has always been considered an aristocratic instrument that adorned the salons and halls of the richest people in Europe. That is why in the old days it was made from expensive types of wood, the keys were covered with tortoise shell plates, mother of pearl, and sometimes inlaid with precious stones.
• Have you noticed that some harpsichords have black lower keys and white upper keys - everything is exactly the opposite of that of a grand piano or upright piano? Harpsichords with key colors like this were common in France in the 17th century. As historians explain, this decoration of the keyboard was associated with the gallant style that was dominant in art at that time - the snow-white hands of the harpsichordists looked very graceful and prominent on the black keyboard.
• At first, the harpsichord was placed on a table; a little later, the craftsmen added beautiful legs.
• At one time, the conductor had to sit at the harpsichord, and he managed to play with his left hand and direct the musicians with his right.
• Trying to recreate the sound of a harpsichord, some masters resorted to trickery. Thus, in the Red October piano, made in Soviet times, the third pedal lowers a special fabric onto the strings, to which metal reeds are attached. The hammers strike them and a characteristic sound occurs. The Soviet Accord piano has the same design.
• Foot switches on the harpsichord did not appear until 1750.
• At first, the dynamics of sound were changed by doubling and tripling the strings; only in the 17th-18th centuries did they begin to make instruments with 2 or even 3 manuals, located one above the other with different registers. In this case, the upper manual was tuned an octave higher.
• For a long time, the oldest harpsichord that has survived to this day was considered to be the instrument of the Italian master Hieronymus in 1521. However, later they found an older harpsichord, made on September 18, 1515 by Vincentius from Livigimeno.
• Harpsichords of the 16th century were predominantly of Italian origin (Venice) and were made of cypress. French instruments with two keyboards (manuals) were made of walnut.
• Most harpsichords have a lute register, which is characterized by a nasal timbre. In order to achieve such a sound, the strings were muffled with pieces of felt or leather.
• In the Middle Ages, at the court of the Spanish King Philip II there was a so-called “cat harpsichord”. It was a device consisting of a keyboard and a rectangular box with several compartments in which cats were placed. Before this, the animals were listened to by stepping on their tails and ranked according to their voices. Then the tails of the unfortunate cats were secured under the keys, when pressed, a needle was pierced into them. The animal screamed loudly, and the performer continued to play his melody. It is known that Perth I also ordered a “cat harpsichord” for his cabinet of curiosities.
• The famous French harpsichordist F. Couperin has a treatise “The Art of Playing the Harpsichord,” which is still used by musicians in our time.
• It was Couperin who began to actively use the thumb (first finger) when playing the harpsichord; before that, musicians played with only four, and the fifth was not used. This idea was soon picked up by other performers.
• The famous performer Handel, as a child, was forced to practice playing the harpsichord in the attic, since his father was against a career as a musician and dreamed of him receiving a law degree.
• It is interesting that the action of the jumper was described by W. Shakespeare in his 128th sonnet.
• Musicians who played the harpsichord were called claviers, since they also successfully played the organ and clavichord.
• It is noteworthy that the range of the concert harpsichord is ser. 18th century was wider than the piano, which replaced it a little later

Keyboard musical instruments are characterized by a sound production system using levers controlled by keys. A set of keys arranged in a certain order is called an instrumental keyboard.

Organ - the first keyboard wind instrument

The history of keyboard instruments dates back to. One of the first keyboard instruments is the organ. In the first organs, sound was produced by controlling large valves. They turned out to be quite inconvenient and quite quickly the valves were replaced with levers, also of quite impressive size. In the 11th century, levers were replaced by wide keys that could be pressed with hand force. Comfortable narrow keys, characteristic of modern organs, appeared only in the 16th century. So the organ turned into a keyboard wind musical instrument.

Clavichord - the first stringed keyboard instrument

The first clavichords were invented between the 14th and 16th centuries; historians, unfortunately, do not know more exact dates. The device of the medieval clavichord resembled a modern piano. It is characterized by a quiet, soft sound, so the clavichord was rarely played for large audiences. In addition, it is quite compact in size, and therefore was often used for home music playing and was very popular in rich homes. Composers of the Baroque era created musical works especially for the clavichord: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven.

Harpsichord

The harpsichord first appeared in the 14th century in Italy; even Boccaccio mentioned it in his Decameron. This is a plucked string musical instrument, since it is characterized by sound production by plucking the string with a pick at the moment the key is pressed. The role of a mediator is performed by a plectrum made of a bird's feather.

There are one- and two-manual harpsichords. Unlike a clavichord or a piano, the strings of a harpsichord are parallel to the keys, just like a grand piano.

Harpsichord

The harpsichord produces a weak, harsh sound. It was often used in chamber music as an accompaniment to song performances. The body of the harpsichord was richly decorated, and in general this instrument was viewed rather as a decorative element.

The spinet, virginel and muselar are types of harpsichord. They have a similar principle of sound production, but different designs. These are small instruments, most often with one keyboard and a range of four octaves.

Piano

It was first designed by the Italian master Bartolomeo Christofi in the early 18th century. By this period, keyboard instruments practically could not withstand the competition of strings, in particular, which were much more virtuosic and expressive. The piano became an instrument that could provide an impressive dynamic range and win the hearts of the musicians of the era.

Bartolomeo Cristofi called his new keyboard instrument “playing softly and loudly,” which in Italian sounded “piano e forte.” Similar variations of keyboard instruments were created almost at the same time by Christophor Gottlieb Schröter and the Frenchman Jean Marius.

The Italian piano by Bartolomeo Christofi was designed as follows: hitting the key activates a felt hammer, the hammer, in turn, causes the string to vibrate, and a special mechanism moves the hammer back, preventing it from pressing the string and muffling the sound. This piano had no pedals or dampers. Later, the ability to return the hammer only halfway was added, which turned out to be very convenient for performing various types of melismas, which are characterized by rapid repetition of notes.

An article on the history of ancient clavichords, harpsichords and similar keyboard instruments. What adds interest is that this article is authored by Evgenia Braudo, was published as a brochure in 1916 in the “Musical Contemporary” series under No. 6. As always, I recognized and translated it from pre-revolutionary to modern Russian. Pictures, of course, suckers in quality, but if you want, I think you can find normal ones on the Internet.

Relatively recently, music science began to pay serious attention to history of ancient instruments. Even twenty years ago, these people from distant antiquity, evoking an idea of ​​the alluring beauty of past centuries, of forgotten musical masterpieces, were of interest only to learned archaeologists and museum curators. In recent years, thanks to the successful activities of various “associations for playing ancient instruments,” of which there are a considerable number in all major cultural centers, this area of ​​musical research has begun to attract outstanding scientific forces. For the very first attempts to present the pearls of old music in the frame of their inherent sonority showed that the musical art of the old years, so refined and fragile, requires a masterly fusion of technique with content, and that only an accurate clarification of the design features of all these curious harpsichords, clavichords, and viols makes it possible truly revive the faded gems of old craftsmanship.

The following lines, dedicated to the thousand-year history of the most widespread musical instrument, which in all eras of history has been the custodian of the highest musical values, are intended not so much to present its external evolution, but to point out those structural features of the distant ancestors of our modern piano, which undoubtedly influenced the development of the keyboard style of past centuries.

Genealogy clavier goes back to times very distant from us. Its progenitor is a small wooden box with a string stretched on it, which can be divided into any two parts using a movable threshold. This is a monochord, a physical device familiar to readers from high school physics lessons. Even in ancient times, this instrument served for the mathematical determination of tones. By shortening a string, for example G, by 1/9 of its length and vibrating the remaining 8/9 of it, we obtain a major second, A; 4/5 of the same string produces a major third, H; three quarters - a quart, C; two thirds - a fifth, D; three-fifths major sixth, E; half is the octave G.

But the primitive single-string had a very significant drawback. His string showed the ratio of the lengths of the sounding parts for all tones of the rock, but did not allow the simultaneous sound of the compared sections, and already in a very early era the idea arose to provide "monochord" several strings for greater clarity of consonant intervals. Aristides Quintilian and Claudius Ptolemy, theorists of the 2nd century, describe an instrument equipped with four strings and called a helicon.

In the Middle Ages, a "monochord", which would be more correctly called "polychord", began to be used not only for theoretical research, but also for accompanying singing. In order to facilitate the extremely complex procedure of playing this instrument, the soundboard of the monochord began to be equipped with stands with sharp edges, installing them at the locations of the most important divisions of the string. When, approximately in the middle of the 12th century, the oldest instruments with keys, small portable organs, regals, used for educational purposes and home worship, began to spread, the first attempts were made to adapt the keyboard to a monochord, in the form of a system of stands, each of which, when pressed, the corresponding key, raised enough to firmly press the string in a certain place. However, it was not enough to separate part of the string using a stand; it was necessary to set it into vibration, and so, over time, the primitive stands of the monochord were transformed into metal pins (tangents). These tangents, attached to the keyboard levers, not only divided the string into two parts, but simultaneously made it sound.

A tool built on the principle monochord, but which had a larger number of strings set into oscillation using keys and metal tangents connected to them, received the name clavichord.

About a thousand years passed until, through hard work to improve the mechanism, the ancient single-string was turned into a clavichord. The history of musical art persistently tried, contrary to the evidence, to retain the name monochord behind the clavichord, which caused considerable difficulties to medieval theorists, who tried in vain to find an explanation for such a discrepancy. No less persistently, over the centuries, clavichord builders tried to preserve intact the most monochord principle when applied to a new instrument. While the monochord served exclusively theoretical purposes, it was quite clear that in order to compare individual tones with each other in ancient times, strings of the same length were taken, which made it possible to clearly show the direct connection between the length of the sounding part and the pitch of the sound. But due to a strange historical tradition, the clavichord, which had a completely different application in the art of music, had the same length of strings, so the difference in tones on the clavichord was due only to the difference in the location of the supports that set its strings in vibration. Moreover, the number of the latter did not at all correspond to the number of keys. According to the old principle of the monochord, each individual string had a series of bridges that divided it at different points, and thus, with the help of one string, several tones of different pitches could be produced. All strings were tuned to the lowest tone of the clavichord, G, connected to the first key, which vibrated the entire length of the string. The next key, with its wide metal pin, shortened the same first string by one ninth and thus gave the sound A. The third key shortened the same string by one fifth, giving the tone N. Only the fourth key struck the second string, separating one fourth of it with a pin part, so that with the help of three quarters of the string the tone C was obtained.

We have seen that the tones G, A and H are produced by vibrating the same string. As a result, they could not be played together on the old keyboard. G and C formed the first consonance available to the keys of this instrument. However, with the development of harmonic thinking and the expansion of the concept of consonance, the discrepancy between the number of strings and keys began to disappear. This improvement of the instrument progressed very quickly. At the end of the 15th century, only 7 strings were used for 22 keys. In the 16th century, the number of strings immediately quadrupled; I had to see, in the museum of the Berlin Higher School of Musical Art, a clavichord of the second half of the 16th century with 30 strings, with 45 keys, located in the same way as on a modern piano. However, in this example, some strings had 3 keys. The “free” clavichord, in which each string was served by only one key, was invented much later, in 1723, and at one time was considered the greatest rarity.

How the keys were coordinated with the strings of the clavichord has not yet been clarified. A quick glance at the internal structure of the clavichord, with its bizarre lines of key levers, is enough to see what tricks had to be resorted to to bring the keys and strings into line. Typically, stands with pins ("frets", as they are called by analogy with a lute) were arranged in such a way that each string passed through three stands mounted on the resonant soundboard of the instrument. When playing the clavichord, the musician had to cover the non-sounding part of the string with one hand. From the end of the 15th century, this inconvenience was eliminated by using a narrow strip of cloth placed at the point where the string was divided. In the 18th century, attempts were made to attach a foot keyboard to the clavichord, modeled on an organ. I saw one of the extremely rare specimens of this type in the Bach Museum in the homeland of the great master.

Ancient clavichords had a very characteristic quadrangular flat shape, resulting from the same length of all the strings of the instrument. In general, their appearance resembled rectangular English pianos, which were very common in the twenties of the last century among poor amateurs and here.

The first instruments of the clavichord type were oblong boxes that served not only for music, but also for all kinds of other home entertainment: for playing dice, chess (hence the old French name for the clavichord "eschi quier" - chessboard), ladies' handicrafts (an example of a similar kind, with a cushion for pins, is available in the Stieglitz Bar Museum in Petrograd), etc. Initially, the volume of the instrument was so modest that the keyboard was placed on the table to play. Subsequently, when his keyboard grew to four and a half octaves, the “grandfather of the modern piano” had to be put on its own feet. But even in this more cumbersome form, the clavichord was still so light and portable that the virtuosos who delighted the ears of our ancestors could travel everywhere with their clavichord, which fit in a road carriage.

The sounds of the clavichord, quiet and fragile, were absorbed to a large extent by the cloth used in the construction of the instruments. Therefore, in terms of sonority, the clavichord was completely dwarfed not only by the organ, but even by the lute. Its languidly trembling sounds are full of some kind of eerie charm. The fact is that the clavichord was characterized by a special soft vibration of the strings, which made individual tones unclear and blurry. This feature was rooted in the very mechanism of the instrument, for the harder the player pressed the key, the higher the metal pin raised the string itself, and the sound produced by it increased, although to a slight extent. Clavichordists were excellent at using this vibration of sound (Bebung) for various melismatic decorations. A modern piano, more advanced in its structure, is of course alien to such vague sound formations; with the progress of technology, this source of musical pleasure disappeared without a trace; Meanwhile, only the aroma of the sonority of an ancient clavichord can give us a true idea of ​​the captivating charms of the refined music of the 17th and 18th centuries.

However, the logic of history, which placed the clavier at the head of the musical development of Europe, already in the middle of the 15th century demanded the replacement of the intimate, self-contained clavichord with another instrument with an even, clear, strong sound. Along with the clavichord, a new keyboard instrument, known in the annals of music under the name clavicimbala, appears for the first time in Italy, and then in the northern countries. This name, unpleasant for our ears, shows that its prototype is the vulgar dulcimer, which has a booming, sharp sound produced by striking a hammer on steel strings of various lengths and tunings.

Cymbals to this day they are part of the Romanian and Hungarian folk orchestras and here, in the south of Russia, they have their own centuries-old, interesting history. Instruments of this type were familiar to the Egyptians in ancient times and were passed on to the Greeks from them. In Europe they became widespread in the middle of the 7th century. Not a single folk festival was complete without dancing to the sounds of cymbals.

Initially, the dulcimer was a small triangular box with 10 metal strings stretched over the soundboard. Later, the number of the latter grew to four octaves. Thanks to the large volume of the instrument, it became possible to improve its sonority by using two and three-chorus sets of strings made of different materials. These strings passed through two systems of stands and were strengthened with the help of metal and wooden pegs. The deck was equipped with two round holes. A significant drawback of the cymbals was the lack of a device for muffling the sound, and the most skillful playing was powerless to overcome the original sin of the instrument - its vague, buzzing tone.

However, the history of music has preserved a number of names of virtuosos on this instrument, who tried to bring the technique of playing it to high perfection.

Of these, the most famous in his time was Pantaleone Gebenstreit(1669 - 1750), inventor of the "pantaleon", named after him, an extremely improved dulcimer, which played a major role in the invention of a new clavier mechanism, the piano with hammers. How great a sensation the virtuoso art of this cymbalist created in the musical world is shown by the fact that even such great masters as Telemann considered it possible to enter into public competition with Gebenstreit. One of his students, a Bavarian with the very characteristic surname of Gumpenguber, gained great fame at court Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. The dulcimer players played “For the Sovereign’s Joy” already at Mikhail Fedorovich during the Highest exits... to the bathhouse. The cymbals were to a certain extent reminiscent of the “yarovchaty gusli”, which explains their adaptability to the everyday life of ancient Russian life.

Main difference clavicymbala(i.e., a cymbal with keys) from the clavichord was that in the first, each key corresponded, as in a modern piano, to a special string tuned in a certain tone, as a result of which there was no longer a need for a system of stands separating them from the string sounding part. In addition, the clavicymbal naturally required a completely different blow. Instead of the tangents of the clavichord, which evoked the dreamy sounds of the strings with their gentle touch, wooden sticks were used here, on the upper ends of which small pointed pieces of a raven wing, hard leather or metal reeds were mounted, hooking the strings. To enhance sonority, clavicymbals, like clavichords, were built with two and three choirs, and each individual string was vibrated by a special stick with a tongue. From the further presentation we will see how important this design feature of the clavicimbal was for obtaining various shades of sound.

It is very difficult to say when the idea of ​​​​applying a keyboard to the cymbals first arose. The famous philologist Scaliger (1484 - 1556) says in his work “Poetices Libri VII” (Lyon, 1561) that in his childhood psalteries (an ancient type of percussion instruments similar to cymbals), equipped with keys, were found in almost all houses.

In common people they were called "monochords" or "manichords". In this way we can establish that in the middle of the 15th century, clavicymbals were already widespread.

Clavicimbals were the first to acquire citizenship rights in the musical life of England, and small instruments of this type became the subject of special musical hobby. Queen Elizabeth herself was an excellent harpsichordist, and for a long time historians believed that the English name for the instrument "virginelle" (Virginal), dating back 20 years before her birth, to preserve for our generations the memory of the Virgin Queen (virgo). We present a photograph of an instrument richly decorated with carmine, gold and coats of arms from the mid-16th century. The charming compositions of the Old English masters are brought back to life; long-silent strings rustle gently; Graceful variations on a folk theme, a majestic Panama hat, a joyful galliard enchant our ears... This clavicimbal, built of cedar wood, is Venetian workmanship. At Fedora Ioannovich Elizabeth's ambassador brought the Tsar of Muscovy a similar virginel with the corresponding players as a gift. An English writer of everyday life of Rus' says that Tsarina Irina Feodorovna, examining the gift, was especially struck by the appearance of the virginel, which was gilded and decorated with enamel, and “admired the harmony of these musical instruments, never before seen or heard of. Thousands of people crowded around the palace to listen to them.” .

However, the first virginels themselves left much to be desired in terms of sound beauty, and their most important drawback was the fragmentation, harshness and dryness of tone. Therefore, all the diligence of the craftsmen who worked to improve this type of instrument was reduced to introducing a certain variety into the shades of sound of clavicymbals. At the end of the 16th century. An extremely important improvement was made by the famous Amsterdam master, Hans Ruckers. keyboard mechanisms. He began to produce virginels with two keyboards for the first time. When playing on the upper keyboard, only one string was specified; when you press the bottom key, two strings are set into vibration, and the virginel sounds with double strength and brilliance. To give the sound a special fullness, Ruckers added a third, thinner one, tuned an octave higher, to the two “chorus” strings. Thus, two Rookers virginel keyboards made it possible to play three strings at once or only one of them. One of our illustrations shows a photographic image of a virginel by Ruckers. The lid depicts in color the competition between Apollo and Mars, a favorite motif for artistic decorations of claviers. From Hans Ruckers, the art of making virginels passed on to his four sons, who honorably kept their father's behests. Even at the beginning of the 18th century, Ruckers' clavicymbals enjoyed great popularity and were widely sold. The best Dutch artists of animals and dead nature - Frank, Jan van Heysum - decorated them with their skillful brushes, so that the price of the instruments reached 3000 livres. But - alas! - buyers often dismantled the clavicymbal itself into pieces in order to preserve the painting.

The reader sees one of the best tools of Ruckers' son's work in the accompanying illustration. This "harpsichord"(large virginel) by Handel, which once aroused the admiration of the composer’s contemporaries with its beauty and softness of sound. The three-choir instrument is equipped with two keyboards with very carefully adjusted keys and a superbly crafted soundboard. Small wooden handles placed in the left corner served to connect and disconnect the keyboards. However, despite its relatively large volume, this harpsichord was not yet equipped with either legs or pedals (invented in the 15th century by the Venetian organist Bernardino), which served for octave doubling of bass tones.

We see all these devices on the large London-made harpsichord, which represented the last word in clavier construction. This instrument came out in 1773 from the famous Bradwood workshop, which to this day has retained the reputation of the best piano factory in England. In appearance, it is almost no different from a modern grand piano (with the exception, of course, of two keyboards). Its wooden frame with transverse ribs, first used by Bradwood, is curious. Thanks to a number of registers for amplification and various modifications of sonority, this harpsichord gave a very even and strong tone.

While the British showed preference for instruments whose sonority was close to piano, in France, music lovers valued small clavicymbals with one keyboard above all else, "spinets", named after the Venetian master Giovanni Spinetti, who lived at the beginning of the 16th century (another etymology of this word from “spina” (needle) is now abandoned). According to Praetorius, the author of the most complete scientific description of musical instruments of the 16th century, a “spinet” is a small quadrangular instrument tuned a fifth higher or lower than its true pitch. It was usually placed above the keyboard. I have seen such instruments from the late 16th century, combining an ordinary clavier with a spinet (to enhance sonority), in old German and Italian collections. An extremely interesting variety of spinets was the “clavicytherium” instrument. Such "vertical spinet", was equipped with intestinal strings. The use of the latter can only be considered a bad experience, since the intestinal strings did not stay in tune, easily succumbing to atmospheric influences. The clavicytherium survived into the 17th century, apparently with impractical intestinal strings. But the very idea of ​​​​a vertical arrangement of strings has reached our time and is implemented in the piano, whose homeland is Italy. The instrument we photographed from the early 16th century belongs to the oldest specimens of clavicytherium and is extremely rare.

In the 17th century, the name “spinet” was extended to generally cover all single-chop clavicymbals.

The improvement of this type of keyboard instruments is a great merit of the Parisian masters, whose products in the middle of the 18th century were considered the best in Europe. The Parisian became especially famous for his harpsichords (as large spinets were called in France). Pascal Tasken, having built the instrument "en peau de buffle" in 1768. The essence of his invention was that, along with feathers and elastic reeds, he used buffalo skin reeds in his three-choir instruments, which, according to his own assurance, did not tug, but caressed the string with their touch. The so-called "jeu de buffle" could be used separately or simultaneously with feathers. Indeed, according to the experts of that time, these instruments surpassed everything that had so far been done in the field of harpsichord construction. Their sweet, soft, velvety sound gave, with the help of registers, various increases in strength, and the bass tones were distinguished by great density and content.

The invention of Tasquin, of course, quickly spread in France and abroad, and over time the “clavecin en peau de buffle” appeared; the musical chronicle was enriched almost every year with new discoveries in the field of keyboard mechanisms. For example, tongues made of buffalo skin were used by the Dresden master I. G. Wagner for what he invented in 1775 "clavecin royal", which had four pedals with which one could imitate playing the harp, lute and cymbals.

The name “clavecin royal” itself has some similarities with the Russian designation for claviers "piano". Improved harpsichords began to be built for the first time in Russia under Catherine II, and among her court ladies there were many skilled harpsichordists.

At the same time, the "cembalo angelico" with leather tangents covered with velvet to obtain the softest sounds was released for sale in Rome. Other inventors, on the contrary, tried to interest connoisseurs and amateurs with new sound effects that could be extracted from their instruments.

Great Johann Sebastian Bach invented the so-called lute clavicimbal. His invention was improved by a Hamburg master I. Fleisher, who built specially theorbic clavicymbals (theorbo - bass lute), which produced sounds an octave lower than an ordinary clavier. This contra-outbuilding was equipped with three registers that vibrated the metal strings of the latter. Fleischer's theorbic clavicymbals were very expensive - up to 2000 rubles in our money.

Very interesting were attempts to obtain the sonority of a string ensemble using a keyboard instrument. This discovery was made in 1600 by an organist Joseph Haydn from Nuremberg. These kinds of instruments were very common in the 18th century. The main features of their mechanism boiled down to the fact that with the help of keys a number of bows adjacent to the intestinal strings were set in motion. The pedals of the instrument made it possible to regulate the pressure.

This type of bow wing should include the “musical marvel” of the times of Catherine the Great - the Strasser orchestra, now kept in the Hermitage. About a similar harpsichord, built in 1729 by a certain Mr. de Virbes, says the famous historian I.H. Forkel. This clavicimbal had the ability to imitate 18 different instruments, and “the illusion was so complete that it was possible to play an entire symphony on it, sounding the same as when performed by an orchestra.”

But still, the reign of the harpsichord was coming to an end. In 1711 Bartolomeo Cristofori, erroneously also called Cristofali, a new keyboard instrument was invented, which over time replaced the existing old types. Cristofori replaced the system of tangents and wings in the harpsichord with hammers that struck the strings and thus made them sound. While on the most perfect clavicimbal it was possible to achieve only meager shades of sonority through a complex registration procedure, a simple touch of the fingers on the keys of the new instrument made it possible to enhance the sonority from the most delicate pianissimo to thunderous fortissimo. At the beginning of the 18th century, an Italian master finally designed a mechanism that contained all the essential features of our modern grand pianos. Thanks to the percussion mechanism, the strength of the sound now depended solely on the force of pressing the key, which immediately opened up a completely new area of ​​infinitely varied play with dynamic shades when performing a composition for the clavier. Cristofori called his instrument, which could be played softly or loudly at will, "Gravicembalo (distorted clavicembalo) col piano e forte."

Cristofori’s invention went unnoticed by his contemporaries, and the modest curator of the Prince of Medici Museum probably never dreamed that the piano he built (a photograph of which is included in this article) would be carefully preserved as a national treasure in the best Italian museum. His brainchild had to endure a fierce struggle with the remnants of musical antiquity, which ended only in the 20s of the 19th century.

Despite the fact that from the outside the history of the ancient clavier has been studied in all details, there are many questions that have not yet been sufficiently covered by scientific research. These questions concern the nature of sonority and the use of both instruments in the performance of ancient music.

Of both types of clavier, the clavicimbal played an incomparably more significant role in the history of musical art. Since the advent of solo singing, he has occupied a leading position as a general bass and accompanying instrument. In addition, solo keyboard music, which owes its development to the musical genius of the Romanesque peoples, grew exclusively on the basis of harpsichord sonority.

As we have already indicated, with a clavicimbalo (or “cembalo”, according to Italian nomenclature), the strength of sonority was independent of the player himself. In this respect it resembled an organ. The system of registers only to a certain extent eliminated this main drawback of the instrument, and cheap home harpsichords usually had only one register. Being, on the one hand, related to the organ, the clavicimbal, on the other, resembled a lute as a percussion instrument. It is quite remarkable that initially the lute and organ played the same role in the performance of the general bass as the clavicimbal did in a later era. The latter, thanks to his special merits, finally won a victory over his rivals. Compared to the lute, it was distinguished by greater ease of playing chords, but it was superior to the organ in its mobility, as well as its ability to merge with the timbres of other instruments, usually suppressed by the massive sonority of the organ. The delicate tone of the clavicimbal seems to have been created for the general bass part of an ancient orchestra, and this immediately becomes noticeable when the hard, sharp sound of the piano takes its place.

Theorists of the 18th century unanimously recognized that no ensemble music is conceivable without the participation of the cymbal. “The universal sonority of the clavicimbal,” writes Matheson, “creates the inevitable foundation for all church, theater and chamber music.” Until the middle of the 18th century, the clavicimbal also served as the only solo keyboard instrument, and this circumstance forces us to take into account its sound features when performing keyboard music of the pre-piano period. An extremely elegant description of clavicymbal sonority is given by Chr. Schubart, author of a treatise on musical aesthetics: “The tone of the clavicimbal has a simple linear character, but it is as clear as the drawings of Kneller or Chodowiecki, devoid of any shades. First of all, you need to learn how to play this instrument clearly, which is tantamount to studying musical notation.” . This comparison unusually aptly defines the essence of clavicymbal sonority. The rich polyphonic weave of the 18th century stands out extremely clearly on such an instrument, and this, to a certain extent, explains the exquisite polyphonic writing of the old clavier masters.

The inherent difficulty of playing several musically equal voices with equal clarity is unknown to the clavicimbalo. Since the keys are struck evenly, the strings give exactly the same effect. At the same time, in contrast to the piano, on which polyphony easily turns into an incomprehensible chaos of sounds, the sounds of the clavicimbal are perceived by the ear completely separately and clearly.

It is not difficult to establish which qualities were especially valuable in the eyes of musicians of past centuries. It must be taken into account that harpsichord literature developed during a period of musical history when playing the clavier served only as pleasant entertainment in free hours. Everything deep and sublime that harpsichord music contained was borrowed from the treasury of organ compositions.

French authors admired mainly its mobility and lightness of sound. German historians and poets glorified the silvery timbre of the instrument. But they all agreed that the soulless clavicymbal was not suitable for expressing the tender emotions, melancholy and sensitivity of the human heart, and therefore, in the era of sentimentalism, the unfairly forgotten clavichord, capable of conveying the subtlest shades of musical expression, again came to the fore.

Clavichord, as readers already know, has a very primitive impact mechanism. But it is precisely this simplicity in transferring the blow to the key that creates a special closeness between the performer and the instrument on which he plays. The sound of the clavichord is weak and in character is much closer to the silvery tone of a harpsichord than to a modern piano. But the musical individuality of the clavichord has still been so little studied that the most significant historical evidence is the descriptions of it that we find in the novels of the era of Werther and Charlotte.

“The clavichord,” writes Schubart, already quoted by us, “a lonely melancholic clavichord, has a huge advantage over the piano. By pressing the keys we can cause on it not only full sound coloring, but also mezzotints, mainly trills, portamentos, or gentle vibrations, in a word all those basic features from which our feeling is created."

We know what the “necessary vibration” was, used very skillfully by clavichordists, from the description of Burney, the famous English critic, an ardent admirer of F. E. Bach, who in his time was considered the greatest virtuoso on the clavichord.

“When Bach needed to extract the desired tone from his clavier, he tried to give it a shade of sadness and deep suffering, which was only possible on the clavichord.”

In Bach's book we also find detailed instructions regarding playing with this necessary vibration. It was obtained by slightly vibrating the finger on the key (as violinists do in a similar case on their instrument).

The clavichord became a favorite instrument of the era of sentimentalism. But the “clavichord era” did not last long. Already at the end of the 18th century, the piano began to gain the right of citizenship in musical use. Mozart was the first virtuoso to play the "hammer clavier" in public, and his genius consecrated this new instrument. The rapid growth of technical improvements in the piano mechanism finally supplanted the more imperfect forms of the clavier, and already at the beginning of the 19th century the very memory of the captivating gentle sounds of the clavichord went into the realm of distant antiquity, into the realm of half-forgotten musical legends.

Harpsichord(from French clavecin; Italian cembalo, clavicembalo; English harpsichord) is a keyboard string musical instrument with a plucked method of sound production. A musician who performs works on the harpsichord and its varieties is called a harpsichordist.

Device

Initially, the harpsichord had a quadrangular shape, but in the 17th century it acquired a wing-shaped, oblong triangular shape; metal strings began to be used instead of gut strings. Its strings are arranged horizontally, parallel to the keys, usually in the form of several choirs, with groups of strings of different manuals located at different height levels. Externally, harpsichords were usually elegantly finished: the body was decorated with drawings, inlays and carvings. During the era of Louis XV, the decoration of the harpsichord was consistent with the stylish furniture of the time. In the 16th-17th centuries, the harpsichords of the Antwerp masters Rukkers stood out for their sound quality and artistic design.

Story

The earliest mention of a harpsichord-type instrument (clavicembalum, from Latin clavis - “key” and cymbalum - “cymbal”) appears in a 1397 source from Padua (Italy). The earliest image is on the altar of the cathedral in the German city of Minden, dating back to 1425. The first practical description of a harpsichord-like instrument (a clavichord with a plucked mechanism) with drawings was given by the Dutchman Arno from Zwolle around 1445.

The harpsichords of the 15th century have not survived. Judging by the images, these were short instruments with a heavy body. Most surviving 16th-century harpsichords were made in Italy, where Venice was the main center of production. They had an 8` register (less often two registers 8` and 4`) and were distinguished by their grace. Their body was most often made of cypress. The attack on these harpsichords was clearer and the sound more abrupt than that of later Flemish instruments. The most important center of harpsichord production in Northern Europe was Antwerp, where representatives of the Rückers family worked since 1579. Their harpsichords have longer strings and heavier bodies than Italian instruments. From the 1590s, harpsichords with two manuals were produced in Antwerp.