Keyboard instrument

“ All keyboard instruments in ordinary use produce tones that are only approximately correct in pitch, because these must be limited in number to twelve, to the octave, while the tones of the violin are absolute or untempered. The improved instrument produces untempered tones without requiring extraordinary variations from the usual arrangement of the keys. ”

“ The Transpositeur being an independent false keyboard can be applied to any pianoforte by any maker. It has therefore the great merits of adaptability and convenience. It can be placed upon the proper keyboard of an instrument, and by touching a spring to the right hand of the player and a button which permits the keyboard to be shifted through all the semitones of an octave, the transposition desired is effected. ”

“ All these, not excepting even the preludes, are in the contrapuntal style which is the outgrowth of the old vocal polyphony. But they are greatly enlivened by rapid figures, scales and arpeggios as well as trills and ornamental devices. [Pg 16] Such figures, being not at all suitable to voices but only to a keyboard instrument, mark the progress of the keyboard style toward a distinct individuality if not independence from the ancient past of vocal masses and motets, an independence which no great music has ever quite achieved. ”

“ The mathematical ratio referred to on page 134, if strictly carried out in tuning a keyboard instrument would cause the half-steps to vary slightly in size, and playing in certain keys (especially those having a number of sharps or flats in the signature) would therefore sound out of tune. There would be many other disadvantages in such a system, notably the inability to modulate freely to other keys, and since modulation is one of the predominant and most striking characteristics of modern music, this would constitute a serious barrier to advances in composition. ”

“ The influence of the keyboard upon the development of modern music is as conspicuous as it has been important. To this day C major is 'natural' on the keys, as it is in the corresponding notation. Other scales are formed by substituting accidental sharps or flats for naturals both in notation and on the keyed instrument, a fact which is evidence of the common origin and early growth together of the two. ”

“ It had a compass of five octaves, and although the keyboard was of the same extent as in the larger harmoniums, the instrument could be instantly folded up so as to occupy less than half its height and length. The jury, in awarding the inventor a prize medal, said the portable harmonium was peculiarly constructed for producing expression, and might either be used by itself for the performance of music written for the organ or harmonium, or for taking violin, flute, or violoncello solos or parts—its capabilities of expression giving it great advantages in imitating these instruments. ”

“ I wish very much that some of our ingenious American instrument-makers could have the opportunity of examining it. It has been publicly exhibited at the South-Kensington Exhibition, before the recent meeting of the British Association, and elsewhere. The highest scientific authorities have pronounced most thoroughly in favor of its 'perfectness, beauty, and simplicity.' Whether the greater complication of the keyboard will interfere seriously with its popular use, remains to be seen."
Mr. Theodore Thomas recently gave an excellent performance of the works of American composers. ”

“ Spinet; Virginal.
CLAVICHORD, or Clarichord (Fr. manicorde; Ger. Clavichord; Ital. manicordo; Span. manicordio1) , a medieval stringed keyboard instrument, a forerunner of the pianoforte (q.v.) , its strings being set in vibration by a blow from a brass tangent instead of a hammer as in the modern instrument. The clavichord, derived from the dulcimer by the addition of a keyboard, consisted of a rectangular case, with or without legs, often very elaborately ornamented with paintings and gilding. The earliest instruments were small and portable, being placed upon a table or stand. ”

“ At the top of each leg is a richly engraved band of brass, and rosette, to conceal the place where the pin held the leg to the instrument. The drawer knobs were doubtless brass also, for these are not the original ones. The panel above the keyboard is beautifully painted in metallic lustre, and has two carved panels besides, over velvet. The legs are boldly carved with the acanthus leaf, and everything about the piano is as elegant as possible. By the time these last two instruments were made music had taken a decided advance. Musical societies were organized in all the large cities ”

“ The two principal types of keyboard instruments are the organ and the piano; their keyboards, although similarly constructed, differ widely in scope and capabilities. The keyboard of the organ, a purely mechanical contrivance, is the external means of communicating with the valves or pallets that open and close the entrances to the pipes. As its action is incapable of variation at the will of the performer, the keyboard of the organ remains without influence on the quality and intensity of the sound. ”

“ Still the question of organ touch is complicated by the peculiarities of the instrument and the varieties of mechanism. Many organs exist with four keyboards (even five may be met with) , and the necessarily different levels of these make it almost impossible to keep the hand in a uniform position for all of them. It is rare to find any two of these manuals with a similar touch, and the amount of force required to press down the key varies within wide limits. Even on the same keyboard the touch is appreciably heavier in the bass, and inequalities occur between adjacent notes. ”

“ Each instrument is provided with a keyboard, resembling that of a small piano, the key levers of which communicate with a circular row of vertical pins. A horizontal arm fixed to a vertical shaft in gear with the mechanism sweeps over these pins at the rate of about two revolutions per second. When a key is depressed, slightly raising one of the pins, the horizontal arm will pass over it and in doing so will momentarily join the battery to the line. The current thus sent to the line may be made either to act directly on the printing instrument or to close a local circuit by means of a relay. ”

“ Only the A must be taken from a keyboard instrument, the fifths on the keyboard being not quite perfect, but “tempered”. Perfect fifths can only be obtained by a good deal of practice. Advanced students may test the tuning quietly by taking any two adjacent strings (with the little finger equally on both) in harmonics, or by beating lightly with the stick on the string. In the course of a piece, if even this is not possible, a slight pressure above the nut will sharpen a string, tugging it between nut and bridge will flatten ”

“ It is called the 'voice harmonium,' because the securing of perfect intonation brings the tones much nearer to the quality of the human voice. The instrument has been invented and patented by Mr. Colin Brown of Glasgow, Ewing lecturer on music. By the use of additional reeds and a most ingenious keyboard, he has succeeded in giving each key in perfect tune. The 'wolf' is banished altogether, without the privilege of a single growl. ”

“ When he of the luminous arm steps from the cabinet into the dark room no part of him is visible save the arm. He picks the strings of the instrument with the illuminated hand and fingers the keyboard with the other. He makes a sound of writing on the tablet and tears off a leaf which he conceals, and, drawing a long black stocking over the luminous arm, places in the pocket of the sitter a communication that has been written upstairs in a good light. ”

“ It has enabled the maker of the pianoforte or the organ to obviate a serious imperfection without disturbing the traditional structure of the instrument; while, on the other hand, alterations both in the internal mechanism and in the form of keyboard would have been necessary if musicians had insisted that the 'wolves' should be got rid of without abolishing the old tuning. Trade usage will, therefore, be strongly on the side of equal temperament for a long time to come, and any attempt to recover the meantone system can only be made on a small scale, and for special purposes. ”

“ Since both of these types have basically the same arrangement of keyboard, wrest plank, hitch pins, strings and jacks, and since both types were known as virginals in 17th-century England, it is logical to reserve the term spinet for another kind of instrument, namely the one with the wrest plank and tuning pins in front over the keyboard, and with the strings stretched diagonally. Such instruments were popular in England in the late 17th and early 18th centuries and were known in English as spinets during the period of their popularity. ”

“ Clavicymbal. See Cembalo.
Clavier, literally Keyboard. The German name for all keyboard [209] instruments, such as the clavichord, harpsichord, spinet, instrument, &c. The term is also applied to both the manuals and pedals of the organ.
Clavierbüchlein, little clavier book for Bach’s son W. Friedemann, when nine years old, in 1720. A diagram shows the keys and principal ornaments, and one of the pieces is figured and called “Applicatio, in nomine Jesu.” Some of the pieces are composed by the boy himself. Eleven of the preludes of the Wohltemperirte clavier first appeared in this book ”

“ The desire for a power of increase and decrease on keyboard instruments like the harpsichord and organ, so as to emulate the bow instruments, and even the human voice, in that flow and ebb which are at the foundation of form no less than of expression, has led to the contrivance of mechanical swells as the only possible approach to it. ”

“ We have divided the octave into twelve equidistant degrees, because we had to manage somehow, and have constructed our instruments in such a way that we can never get in above or below or between them. Keyboard instruments, in particular, have so thoroughly schooled our ears that we are no longer capable of hearing anything else—incapable of hearing except through this impure medium. ”

“ Harps, in which the strings are plucked with the plectrum, are in some form or other as old as music itself, and appear in the most various shapes in the first dawn of civilisation. The mechanism of the keyboard, which by means of an easy leverage adapted to the human fingers, gives the player control over the sounds of pipes or strings, is not quite so ancient, since it presumes a certain inventive capacity ”

“ Automatic Players are attached to many pipe organs. They, for the most part, consist of ordinary piano players so arranged that they operate the keys, or the mechanism attached to the keys, of an organ.
This is a very poor plan, and the resulting effect is thoroughly mechanical and unsatisfactory. Only one keyboard is played upon at a time as a rule, and neither the stops nor the pedals, nor the expression levers are operated at all. ”

“ Do not forget that for centuries England has been a country of organists; without doubt organ playing has had some effect on the piano touch. Some schools of piano playing advise lifting the fingers high above the keys, with a view to producing greater power; but I think the tone thus produced is often of a somewhat harsh and disagreeable quality. Then, too, high lifting interferes with smoothness and velocity. For myself I advocate keeping the fingers close to the keyboard, and pressing the keys, which gives the tone a warmer and more elastic quality. ”

“ Thus if an organ has forty speaking stops, all running through the entire keyboard, then each time one key is depressed forty pipes will speak, and if a chord of five tones is played, two hundred pipes will speak. The object of having so many pipes is not merely to make possible a very powerful tone, but, rather, to give greater variety of tone-color.
The pipe-organ usually has a pedal keyboard on which the feet of the performer play a bass part, this part often sounding an octave (or more) lower than the notes indicate. ”

“ The early history of the clavichord previous to the 15th century, together with that of the chromatic keyboard—a formal division at the very foundation of modern music—rest in profound obscurity. We are still free to regard our keyboard as an invention sprung complete from the brain of some one mediæval musician, or as the result of gradual contrivances due to the increasing requirements of many. ”

“ May not Dr. Hopkins's quotation [Organ, vol. ii. p. 585] of two long pipes in an organ of 1418 count as evidence for short measure as much as for pedals? We think so. In fine we regard short measure as having been intended to supply, in deeper toned instruments, dominants for cadences, and in the shriller regals (which were no more than boxes of pitch-pipes, one, two, or three to a key) , to prompt the intonation of the plainsong. The contraction of the keyboard, whether diatonic or chromatic, to suit the size of the hand, was probably due to these small instruments ”

“ The bells which were intended thus to be played by hand were furnished with an inside clapper as well as the outside hammers, the clapper being connected by a wire with the keyboard below, and the hammer operated upon by the mechanical barrel, so that the same set of bells could be played either by machinery or by hand. The keyboard, though arranged on the same principle as the ordinary pianoforte keyboard, was a large affair with wooden keys, so far distant from one another as to admit of being struck with the fist without disturbing the keys on either side ”

“ There is a manuscript of the fourteenth century in the Royal Library at Madrid, stating that the clavier at that epoch comprised as many as thirty-one keys, and that the larger pipes were placed on one side, and small pipes in the center, the same as now. The earliest chromatic keyboards known are those in the organ erected at Halberstadt cathedral in 1361. This instrument had twenty-two keys, fourteen diatonics and eight chromatics, extending from B natural up to A; and twenty bellows blown by ten men. ”