Monday, March 21, 2016

Glue Ton Free?? The Bread & Eh Sir Cuss To Say That Elephants Had Wool!!



Define a Mirror^A^Coal to that Fire in the Skit to the Thermos of lathering La^Amps??,
the aye dent it Tea or the Fast??
who saw that Won come Mean??,
is plural the pay tree it sup. ply??,
ate Hun dread to Hun dread what year is the drum??,
a skull lean or the threshold of avenues flute,
shall the ledger dance or Wok??,
oil in the Rigor to treat the For Head as that Third Eyes tripe??,
what is Fish EAN the Price,
app. Poles or Ice says??,
play tow or Play toe??,
how is the Y's on the X in the In Tour of the System of an Ore Dure of the Ton??,
more Mens??,
case applicable to the re-tired or re-lig-ions.

Cry^Iced Or Cry^Aye^Ist The Few Church Wrist To Know The Crumbs As Ore^A^Coles To Sing A Drum


Futurist

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Futurism (disambiguation).
Futurists or futurologists are scientists and social scientists whose specialty is futurology, or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities about the future and how they can emerge from the present, whether that of human society in particular or of life on Earth in general.

Definition[edit]

The term "futurist" most commonly refers to people such as authors, consultants, organizational leaders and others who engage in interdisciplinary and systems thinking to advise private and public organizations on such matters as diverse global trends, possible scenariosemerging market opportunities and risk management. (Futurist is not in the sense of the art movement futurism.)
The Oxford English Dictionary identifies the earliest use of the term futurism in English as 1842, to refer, in a theological context, to the Christian eschatological tendency of that time. The next recorded use is the label adopted by the Italian and Russian futurists, the artistic, literary and political movements of the 1920s and 1930s which sought to reject the past and fervently embrace speed, technology and, often violent, change.
Visionary writers such as Jules VerneEdward Bellamy and H. G. Wells were not in their day characterized as futurists. The term futurology in its contemporary sense was first coined in the mid‑1940s by the German Professor Ossip K. Flechtheim, who proposed a new science of probability. Flechtheim argued that even if systematic forecasting did no more than unveil the subset of statistically highly probable processes of change and charted their advance, it would still be of crucial social value.[1]
In the mid‑1940s the first professional "futurist" consulting institutions like RAND and SRI began to engage in long-range planning, systematic trend watching, scenario development, and visioning, at first under World War II military and government contract and, beginning in the 1950s, for private institutions and corporations. The period from the late 1940s to the mid‑1960s laid the conceptual and methodological foundations of the modern futures studies field. Bertrand de Jouvenel's The Art of Conjecture in 1963 andDennis Gabor's Inventing the Future in 1964 are considered key early works, and the first U.S. university course devoted entirely to the future was taught by futurist Alvin Tofflerat The New School in 1966.[2]
More generally, the label includes such disparate lay, professional, and academic groups as visionaries, foresight consultants, corporate strategists, policy analysts, cultural critics, planners, marketers, forecasters, prediction market developers, roadmappers, operations researchers, investment managers, actuaries and other risk analyzers, and future-oriented individuals educated in every academic discipline, including anthropology, complexity studiescomputer science, economics, engineering, Urban design,evolutionary biology, history, management, mathematics, philosophy, physical sciences, political science, psychology, sociology, systems theory, technology studies, and other disciplines.

Futures studies[edit]

Main article: Futures studies
"Futures studies"—sometimes referred to as futurology, futures research, and foresight—can be summarized as being concerned with "three P's and a W", i.e. "possible, probable, and preferable" futures, plus "wildcards", which are low-probability, high-impact events, should they occur. Even with high-profile, probable events, such as the fall of telecommunications costs, the growth of the internet, or the aging demographics of particular countries, there is often significant uncertainty in the rate or continuation of a trend. Thus a key part of futures analysis is the managing of uncertainty and risk.[3]

Futurists and futurology[edit]

Not all futurists engage in the practice of futurology as generally defined. Pre-conventional futurists (see below) would generally not. And while religious futurists, astrologers, occultists, New Age divinists, etc. use methodologies that include study, none of their personal revelation or belief-based work would fall within a consensus definition of futurology as used in academics or by futures studies professionals.
Several authors have become recognized as futurists. They research trends, particularly in technology, and write their observations, conclusions, and predictions. In earlier eras, many futurists were at academic institutions. John McHale, author of The Future of the Future, published a 'Futures Directory', and directed a think tank called The Centre For Integrative Studies at a university. Futurists have started consulting groups or earn money as speakers, with examples including Alvin TofflerJohn Naisbitt and Patrick Dixon.Frank Feather is a business speaker that presents himself as a pragmatic futurist. Some futurists have commonalities with science fiction, and some science-fiction writers, such as Arthur C. Clarke, are known as futurists.[citation needed] In the introduction to The Left Hand of DarknessUrsula K. Le Guin distinguished futurists from novelists, writing of the study as the business of prophets, clairvoyants, and futurists. In her words, "a novelist's business is lying".
A survey of 108 futurists[4] found the following shared assumptions:
  1. We are in the midst of a historical transformation. Current times are not just part of normal history.
  2. Multiple perspectives are at heart of futures studies, including unconventional thinking, internal critique, and cross-cultural comparison.
  3. Consideration of alternatives. Futurists do not see themselves as value-free forecasters, but instead aware of multiple possibilities.
  4. Participatory futures. Futurists generally see their role as liberating the future in each person, and creating enhanced public ownership of the future. This is true worldwide.[clarification needed]
  5. Long term policy transformation. While some are more policy-oriented than others, almost all believe that the work of futures studies is to shape public policy, so it consciously and explicitly takes into account the long term.
  6. Part of the process of creating alternative futures and of influencing public (corporate, or international) policy is internal transformation. At international meetings, structural and individual factors are considered equally important.
  7. Complexity. Futurists believe that a simple one-dimensional or single-discipline orientation is not satisfactory. Trans-disciplinary approaches that take complexity seriously are necessary. Systems thinking, particularly in its evolutionary dimension, is also crucial.
  8. Futurists are motivated by change. They are not content merely to describe or forecast. They desire an active role in world transformation.
  9. They are hopeful for a better future as a "strange attractor".
  10. Most believe they are pragmatists in this world, even as they imagine and work for another. Futurists have a long term perspective.
  11. Sustainable futures, understood as making decisions that do not reduce future options, that include policies on nature, gender and other accepted paradigms. This applies to corporate futurists and the NGO. Environmental sustainability is reconciled with the technological, spiritual and post-structural ideals. Sustainability is not a "back to nature" ideal, but rather inclusive of technology and culture.

What Exactly Is A Hymn Writer As Few Church Rist!!


Johann von Rist

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Johann von Rist
Johann von Rist (8 March 1607 – 31 August 1667) was a German poet and dramatist best known for the hymns he wrote.

Life[edit]

He was born at Ottensen in Holstein-Pinneberg (today Hamburg) on 8 March 1607; the son of the Lutheran pastor of that place, Caspar Rist. He received his early training at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums in Hamburg and the Gymnasium Illustre inBremen; he then studied theology at the University of Rinteln. Under the influence of Josua Stegman there, his interest in hymn writing began. On leaving Rinteln, he tutored the sons of a Hamburg merchant, accompanying them to the University of Rostock, where he himself studied Hebrew, mathematics, and medicine. During his time at Rostock, the Thirty Years War almost emptied the University, and Rist himself lay there for several weeks, suffering from pestilence.[1]
In 1650, he became tutor in the house of Landschreiber Heinrich Sager at Heide, in Holstein. Two years later (1635) he was appointed pastor of the village of Wedel on the Elbe. The same year he married Elisabeth Stapel, sister of Franz Stapel, bailiff of nearby Pinneberg. They had 5 children, of whom 2 died early; Elisabeth died 1662. In 1664, he married Anna Hagedorn, born Badenhop, widow of his friend Phillipp Hagedorn. He died in Wedel on 31 August 1667

Work as a dramatist and poet[edit]

Rist first made his name known to the literary world by a drama, Perseus (1634), which he wrote while at Heide, and in the next succeeding years he produced a number of dramatic works of which the allegory Das friedewünschende Teutschland (1647) and Das friedejauchzende Teutschland (1653) (new ed. of both by H. M. Schletterer, 1864) are the most interesting. Rist soon became the central figure in a school of minor poets. The emperor Ferdinand III crowned him laureate in 1644, ennobled him in 1653, and invested him with the dignity of a Count Palatine, an honor which enabled him to the crown, and to gain numerous poets for the Elbschwanenorden (Order of Elbe Swans), a literary and poetical society which he founded in 1660. He had already, in 1645, been admitted, under the name Daphnis aus Cimbrien, to the literary order of Pegnitz, and in 1647 he became, as Der Rüstige, a member of the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft ("Fruitbearing Society").[2]

Work as a hymn writer[edit]

It is, however, as a writer of church hymns that Rist is best known. Among these several are still retained in the evangelical hymn book: e.g. O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort andErmunt're dich, mein schwacher Geist. Collections of his poems appeared under the titles Musa Teutonica (1634) and Himmlische Lieder (1643).
Johann Sebastian Bach composed two cantatas on O Ewigkeit, du DonnerwortBWV 60 (1723) using the first verse of the hymn, and the chorale cantata BWV 20 (1724) based on the entire chorale.[2]
Jesu, der du meine Seele, BWV 78 is another chorale cantata by Bach, based on the hymn with the same name by Rist.

Works[edit]

  • Die alleredelste Belustigung (1666)
  • Die alleredelste Erfindung (1667)
  • Das alleredelste Leben (1663)
  • Das alleredelste Nass der gantzen Welt (1663)
  • Das Friedewünschende Teuschland (1649)
  • Sabbathische Seelenlust. Lüneburg: J. and H. Stern 1651
  • Neue Musikalische Fest-Andachten: Lüneburg: J. and H. Stern 1655
  • Neue Musikalische Katechismus-Andachten. Lüneburg: J. and H. Stern: 1656
  • Himmlische Lieder. Lüneburg: J. and H. Stern 1641
  • Neue Musikalische Kreutz- Trost- Lob und DankSchule. Lüneburg: J. and H. Stern 1659

Is The RSS Noun New^Troll To The Sandbox Off On Aggregator??



Should the Chris^Chin neigh^Shin be of Folk lore than is the Constitution saying basis of Words pleats,
The Jew Day owe Neigh Shin as a Less^Syn to that Wok on the Wall of Ta bet,
is the Confucius a bladder on the bloom Mean of Onions at the Cost of a Crews a Fiction of Man at bread,
to drink Blood as the Ankle on the Thorn of thistles and Crowned by the Nailing of laid??,
is that change to the coin on the shipping News be gained to a Pill^Grimm??,
the app.^Pull^seeded.

Plow the Field of Man Kind at Whoa Man??,
or is Woe Man??,
or is the Fixture be coming Tide Dull and Now is Hymning??,
that is the X^Pier^E!^Hence??,
for today the by Bull is steering a strange and Lure^rid Land.

Talk kin from the grasp of Reach^Chin is the Square jaw^know a balance of Vespa??,
a Con^Stall^Lei^Shin to that Quick Flurry of Meet^Tea^Ores on the bones??,
a Snake River with the Lagoon to Ponds and Lakes forge^Gin that glacier by Cloak & Dagger??,
what is the Chant foresting as the groves to the glen of Thrashers and Baled??,
twine to that Cross-Sect-Shin to Puzzle on the Scrabble^bowl of Mix the letters with Closed??,
mark the feather on the Wells,
is the Watt Tour charging Eclectic language with the Pea gee and E! at the Sill??

Pane and Shudders the Valence to the Curr Tale,
should the Turn of the Cent^Tour^Reed flute clarinets To that mouthpiece on a Role lure??,
the muscle is the Tongue to that is the Fact of the bodily shaft.

Twisted  bye  the File to sort  the  Cab^In^Net as  the Cambrosia goes to the  Tulips bulb,
thee grass see knoll??,
a Cad^A^lacks bench Seat that says Wave as the Roof is down??,
the Pope road in a Mobile mega Form ewe la to purchase that rein on the lathe to the Now,
yet that presents a gifting to the Rambling to clued??,
exit at enter this is the See meant as today it is More than difficult its a Placed,
right in the left of the brain speaking beans connecting the Promise??,
or is the Aye^Ole a massage to the Spelling at Viced??,
over the His^Tore^Read is it Latin or Piece Work that Constructions got Pi??,
for in the Renaissance the Words came A^Thor^It^Tea and that Named it Trump??,
no,
like a Card Game gone Sport Time for Real Advised,
be Wares of the Chase Lounge as the Chair of the gum.

When Push Comes To Shove Do You Dig To The Give Or The Get To Be Used?? Eh Renaissance Air Uh Off Open^knee^Ean That Fusion Back^Words To Cent^Tense & Quirk.



Wood Flutes to the drums of the In^struct^Shin,
the Reed,
a Marsh touching that Mountain Frame,
valley on those rivers stream to babbling,
chord struck.

Is the Pitch tar to the Ear tone of Hands free Soles dance to Peaking,
from the Height of Why Om EAN,
the price Fixture??,
that Trumpet^paw^Tour??,
should that true North shallow an echoing on the sing along??


Verses that Hymn Knoll,
a burst of sku to Violets pull Pits and sync the Deviled Egg.

Boil^lean the skull Proper^Tees asking the Quest Jung,
should the Glenn Beck sound to a type or be uses as a Fret??,
that casual cause Tick to pulse the figurine,
in that statute to what the ear Herd doing bubbles on brisk Falls??,
the Niagara to Original a brought at the Whale,
than that like said that Owl in is Whats clue??

Often The Memory Doors Are The Thunder While The Music Remained To Be The Speak


Harpsichord

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This harpsichord is the work of two celebrated makers: originally constructed by Andreas Ruckers in Antwerp (1646), it was later remodeled and expanded by Pascal Taskin in Paris (1780).
harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.
"Harpsichord" designates the whole family of similar plucked keyboard instruments, including the smaller virginalsmuselar, and spinet.
The harpsichord was widely used in Renaissance and Baroque music. During the late 18th century, it gradually disappeared from the musical scene with the rise of the piano. But in the 20th century, it made a resurgence, being used in historically informed performance of older music, in new (contemporary) compositions, and in popular culture.

Mechanism[edit]


Detail of the mechanism of the Harpsichord by Christian Zell, at Museu de la Música de Barcelona
Harpsichords vary in size and shape, but all have the same basic functional arrangement. The player depresses a key that rocks over a pivot in the middle of its length. The other end of the key lifts a jack (a long strip of wood) that holds a small plectrum (a wedge-shaped piece of quill, nowadays often plastic), which plucks the string. When the player releases the key, the far end returns to its rest position, and the jack falls back. The plectrum, mounted on a tongue that can swivel backwards away from the string, passes the string without plucking it again. As the key reaches its rest position, a felt damper atop the jack stops the string's vibrations. These basic principles are explained in detail below.

Figure 1. Schematic view of a 2 × 8' single manual harpsichord
  • The keylever is a simple pivot, which rocks on a balance pin that passes through a hole drilled through the keylever.
  • The jack is a thin, rectangular piece of wood that sits upright on the end of the keylever. The jacks are held in place by the registers. These are two long strips of wood (the upper movable, the lower fixed), which run in the gap between pinblock and bellyrail. The registers have rectangular mortises (holes) through which the jacks pass as they can move up and down. The registers hold the jacks in the precise location needed to pluck the string.

    Figure 2. Upper part of a jack
  • In the jack, a plectrum juts out almost horizontally (normally the plectrum is angled upwards a tiny amount) and passes just under the string. Historically, plectra were made of bird quill or leather; many modern harpsichords have plastic (delrin or celcon) plectra.
  • When the front of the key is pressed, the back of the key rises, the jack is lifted, and the plectrum plucks the string.
  • The vertical motion of the jack is then stopped by the jackrail (also called the upper rail), which is covered with soft felt to muffle the impact.

    Figure 3: how the harpsichord action works
  • When the key is released, the jack falls back down under its own weight, and the plectrum passes back under the string. This is made possible by having the plectrum held in a tongue attached with a pivot and a spring to the body of the jack. The bottom surface of the plectrum is cut at a slant; thus when the descending plectrum touches the string from above, the angled lower surface provides enough force to push the tongue backward.[1]
  • When the jack arrives in fully lowered position, the felt damper touches the string, causing the note to cease.

Strings, tuning, and soundboard[edit]


Sound board of a harpsichord withChladni patterns

Detail of the harpsichord by Karl Conrad Fleisher; Hamburg, 1720 inMuseu de la Música de Barcelona. A decorative rose descends below the soundboard in which is it mounted; the soundboard itself is adorned with floral painting around the rose. The bridge is at lower right.
Each string is wound around a tuning pin, normally at the end of the string closer to the player. When rotated with a wrench or tuning hammer, the tuning pin adjusts the tension so that the string sounds the correct pitch. Tuning pins are held tightly in holes drilled in thepinblock or wrestplank, an oblong hardwood plank.
Proceeding from the tuning pin, a string next passes over the nut, a sharp edge that is made of hardwood and is normally attached to the wrestplank. The section of the string beyond the nut forms its vibrating length, which is plucked and creates sound.
At the other end of its vibrating length, the string passes over the bridge, another sharp edge made of hardwood. As with the nut, the horizontal position of the string along the bridge is determined by a vertical metal pin inserted into the bridge, against which the string rests.
The bridge itself rests on a soundboard, a thin panel of wood usually made of sprucefir or—in some Italian harpsichords—cypress. The soundboard efficiently transduces the vibrations of the strings into vibrations in the air; without a soundboard, the strings would produce only a very feeble sound.
A string is attached at its far end by a loop to a hitchpin that secures it to the case.

Multiple choirs of strings[edit]

While many harpsichords have exactly one string per note, more elaborate harpsichords can have more. This provides two advantages: ability to vary volume and ability to vary tonal quality. Volume is increased when the mechanism of the instrument is set up by the player (see below) so that the press of a single key plucks more than one string. Tonal quality can be varied in two ways. First, different choirs of strings can be designed to have distinct tonal qualities, usually by having one set of strings plucked closer to the nut, which emphasizes the higher harmonics, and produces a "nasal" sound quality; the mechanism of the instrument permits the player to select one choir or the other. Second, having one key pluck two strings at once changes not just volume but also tonal quality; for instance, when two strings tuned to the same pitch are plucked simultaneously, the note is not just louder but also richer and more complex. A particularly vivid effect is obtained when the strings plucked simultaneously are an octave apart. This is normally heard by the ear not as two pitches but as one: the sound of the higher string is blended with that of the lower one, and the ear hears the lower pitch, enriched in tonal quality by the additional strength in the upper harmonics of the note sounded by the higher string.
When describing a harpsichord it is customary to specify its choirs of strings, often called its disposition. Strings at eight foot pitch sound at the normal expected pitch, strings at four foot pitch sound an octave higher. Harpsichords occasionally include a sixteen-foot choir (one octave lower than eight-foot) or a two-foot choir (two octaves higher; quite rare).
When there are multiple choirs of strings, the player is often able to control which choirs sound. This is usually done by having a set of jacks for each choir, and a mechanism for "turning off" each set, often by moving the upper register (through which the jacks slide) sideways a short distance, so that their plectra miss the strings. In simpler instruments this is done by manually moving the registers, but as the harpsichord evolved, builders invented levers, knee levers and pedal mechanisms to make it easier to change registration.
Harpsichords with more than one keyboard[2] provide flexibility in selecting which strings play, since each manual can control the plucking of a different set of strings. In addition, such harpsichords often have a mechanism that couples manuals together, so that a single manual plays both sets of strings. The most flexible system is the French shove coupler, in which the lower manual slides forward and backward. In the backward position, "dogs" attached to the upper surface of the lower manual engage the lower surface of the upper manual's keys. Depending on choice of keyboard and coupler position, the player can select any of the sets of jacks labeled in figure 4 as A, or B and C, or all three.

Figure 4. French shove coupler. To the left: uncoupled keyboards. The depressed upper key lifts the jack A upwards. The depressed lower key lifts jacks B and C. To the right: The upper keyboard is coupled to the lower one by pulling the latter. The depressed upper key lifts the jack A upwards. The depressed lower key lifts jacks A, B and C.
The English dogleg jack system (also used in Baroque Flanders) does not require a coupler. The jacks labeled A in Figure 5 have a "dogleg" shape that permits either keyboard to play A. If the player wishes to play the upper 8' from the upper manual only and not from the lower manual, a stop handle disengages the jacks labeled A and engages instead an alternative row of jacks called "lute stop" (not shown in the Figure).[3]

Figure 5. Dogleg jack, English coupler system. When depressed, the upper key lifts the "dogleg" jack (jack A) upwards. The lower key lifts all three jacks A, B, and C.
The use of multiple manuals in a harpsichord was not originally provided for the flexibility in choosing which strings would sound, but rather for transposition. For discussion, seeHistory of the harpsichord.

Jan Vermeer's famous painting A Lady Standing at a Virginal shows a characteristic practice of his time, with the instrument mounted on a table and the player standing.

Case[edit]

The case holds in position all of the important structural members: pinblock, soundboard, hitchpins, keyboard, and the jack action. It usually includes a solid bottom, and also internal bracing to maintain its form without warping under the tension of the strings. Cases vary greatly in weight and sturdiness: Italian harpsichords are often of light construction; heavier construction is found in the later Flemish instruments and those derived from them (see History of the harpsichord).

A false inner-outer harpsichord from the Deutsches Museum in Munich. The false inner case begins to the right of the keyboard, and continues backward only far enough to provide a slot to support the jack rail.
The case also gives the harpsichord its external appearance and protects the instrument. A large harpsichord is, in a sense, a piece of furniture, as it stands alone on legs and may be styled in the manner of other furniture of its place and period. Early Italian instruments, on the other hand, were so light in construction that they were treated rather like a violin: kept for storage in a protective outer case, and played after taking it out of its case and placing it on a table.[4] Such tables were often quite high – until the late 18th century people usually played standing up.[4] Eventually, harpsichords came to be built with just a single case, though an intermediate stage also existed: the false inner–outer, which for purely aesthetic reasons was built to look as if the outer case contained an inner one, in the old style.[5] Even after harpsichords became self-encased objects, they often were supported by separate stands, and some modern harpsichords have separate legs for improved portability.
Many harpsichords have a lid that can be raised, a cover for the keyboard, and a stand for music.
Harpsichords have been decorated in a great many different ways: with plain buff paint (e.g. some Flemish instruments), with paper printed with patterns, with leather or velvet coverings, with chinoiserie, or occasionally with highly elaborate painted artwork.[6]

Variants[edit]

Harpsichord[edit]

In modern usage, "harpsichord" can mean any member of the family of instruments. More often, though, it specifically denotes a grand-piano-shaped instrument with a roughly triangular case accommodating long bass strings at the left and short treble strings at the right. The characteristic profile of such a harpsichord is more elongated than a modern piano, with a sharper curve to the bentside.

Virginals[edit]

Main article: Virginals
The virginal is a smaller and simpler rectangular form of the harpsichord having only one string per note; the strings run parallel to the keyboard, which is on the long side of the case.

Spinet[edit]

Main article: Spinet
A spinet is a harpsichord with the strings set at an angle (usually about 30 degrees) to the keyboard. The strings are too close together for the jacks to fit between them. Instead, the strings are arranged in pairs, and the jacks are in the larger gaps between the pairs. The two jacks in each gap face in opposite directions, and each plucks a string adjacent to a gap.
The English diarist Samuel Pepys mentions his "tryangle" several times. This was not the percussion instrument that we call triangle today; rather, it was a name for octave-pitched spinets, which were triangular in shape.

Clavicytherium[edit]

Main article: Clavicytherium
A clavicytherium is a harpsichord with the soundboard and strings mounted vertically facing the player, the same space-saving principle as an upright piano.[7] In a clavicytherium, the jacks move horizontally without the assistance of gravity, so that clavicytherium actions are more complex than those of other harpsichords.

An ottavino built by Arnold Dolmetsch in 1923, and modeled after a 1698 instrument by Joannes Carcassi

Clavicymbalum[edit]

Main article: Clavicymbalum
An early relative of the harpsichord, first attested in 1323, with an unusual jack system, and lacking any method to dampen a string once sounded.

Ottavino[edit]

Ottavini are small spinets or virginals at four foot pitch. Harpsichords at octave pitch were more common in the early Renaissance, but lessened in popularity later on. However, the ottavino remained very popular as a domestic instrument in Italy until the 19th century. In the Low Countries, an ottavino was commonly paired with an 8' virginals, encased in a small cubby under the soundboard of the larger instrument. The ottavino could be removed and placed on top of the virginal, making in effect a double manual instrument. These are sometimes called 'mother-and-child'[8] or 'double' virginals.[9]

Other[edit]

The archicembalo, built in the 16th century, had an unusual keyboard layout, designed to accommodate variant tuning systems demanded by compositional practice and theoretical experimentation. More common were instruments with split sharps, also designed to accommodate the tuning systems of the time.
The folding harpsichord was an instrument that could be folded up for travel.
Pedal Harpsichord: Occasionally, harpsichords were built which included another set or sets of strings underneath and operated by pedals which pluck the lowest keys of the harpsichord. Although there are no known extant pedal harpsichords from the 18th century or before, from Adlung (1758): the lower set of usually 8' strings "...is built like an ordinary harpsichord, but with an extent of two octaves only. The jacks are similar, but they will benefit from being arranged back to back, since the two [bass] octaves take as much space as four in an ordinary harpsichord[10] Prior to 1980 when Keith Hill introduced his design for a pedal harpsichord, most pedal harpsichords were built based on the designs of extant pedal pianos from the 19th century, in which the instrument is as wide as the pedalboard. While these were mostly intended as practice instruments for organists[citation needed], a few pieces are believed to have been written specifically for the pedal harpsichord.[citation needed] However, the set of pedals can augment the sound from any piece performed on the instrument, as demonstrated on several albums by E. Power Biggs.[11]

Compass and pitch range[edit]

On the whole, earlier harpsichords have smaller ranges than later ones, although there are many exceptions. The largest harpsichords have a range of just over five octaves, and the smallest have under four. Usually, the shortest keyboards were given extended range in the bass with a "short octave". The traditional pitch range for a 5-octave instrument is F1 - F6 (FF - f3).
Tuning pitch is often taken to be a=415 Hz, roughly a semitone lower than the modern standard concert pitch of a=440 Hz. An accepted exception is for French baroque repertoire, which is often performed with a=392 Hz, approximately a semitone lower again. See Jean-Philippe Rameau's Treatise on Harmony (1722) [Dover Publications], Book One, chapter five, for insight into French baroque tuning; "Since most of these semitones are absolutely necessary in the tuning of organs and other similar instruments, the following chromatic system has been drawn up." Tuning an instrument nowadays usually starts with setting an A; historically it would commence from a C or an F.
Some modern instruments are built with keyboards that can shift sideways, allowing the player to align the mechanism with strings at either a=415 Hz or a=440 Hz. If a tuning other than equal temperament is used, the instrument requires retuning once the keyboard is shifted.[12]

History[edit]


An early diagram of a vertical harpsichord (clavicytherium) by Arnault de Zwolle, ca. 1430
MENU
0:00
Performed by Robert Schröter on a French harpsichord

MENU
0:00
Performed by Martha Goldstein on an Italian harpsichord

MENU
0:00
Performed by Martha Goldstein on a Flemish harpsichord

MENU
0:00
Performed by Sylvia Kind on a harpsichord of the type made in the early 20th century

Problems playing these files? See media help.
The harpsichord was most probably invented in the late Middle Ages. By the 16th century, harpsichord makers in Italy were making lightweight instruments with low string tension. A different approach was taken in the Southern Netherlands starting in the late 16th century, notably by the Ruckers family. Their harpsichords used a heavier construction and produced a more powerful and distinctive tone. They included the first harpsichords with two keyboards, used for transposition.
The Flemish instruments served as the model for 18th century harpsichord construction in other nations. In France, the double keyboards were adapted to control different choirs of strings, making a more musically flexible instrument. Instruments from the peak of the French tradition, by makers such as the Blanchet family and Pascal Taskin, are among the most widely admired of all harpsichords, and are frequently used as models for the construction of modern instruments. In England, the Kirkman and Shudi firms produced sophisticated harpsichords of great power and sonority. German builders extended the sound repertoire of the instrument by adding sixteen foot and two foot choirs; these instruments have recently served as models for modern builders.
In the late 18th century the harpsichord was supplanted by the piano and almost disappeared from view for most of the 19th century: an exception was its continued use in opera for accompanying recitative, but the piano sometimes displaced it even there. 20th century efforts to revive the harpsichord began with instruments that used piano technology, with heavy strings and metal frames. Starting in the middle of the 20th century, ideas about harpsichord making underwent a major change, when builders such as Frank HubbardWilliam Dowd, and Martin Skowroneck sought to re-establish the building traditions of the Baroque period. Harpsichords of this type of historically informed building practice dominate the current scene.

Music for the harpsichord[edit]

Historical period[edit]

File:Bachbwv933.ogg
Bach's Little Prelude in C majorbeing played on a harpsichord
The great bulk of the standard repertoire for the harpsichord was written during its first historical flowering, the Renaissance and Baroqueeras.
The first music written specifically for solo harpsichord was published around the early 16th century. Composers who wrote solo harpsichord music were numerous during the whole Baroque era in European countries including Italy, Germany, England and France. Solo harpsichord compositions included dance suitesfantasias, and fugues. Among the most famous composers who wrote for the harpsichord were the members of English virginal school of the late Renaissance, notably William Byrd (ca. 1540 – 1623). In France, a great number of highly characteristic solo works were created and compiled into four books of ordres by François Couperin (1668–1733).Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757) began his career in Italy but wrote most of his solo harpsichord works in Spain; his most famous work is his series of 555 harpsichord sonatas. Perhaps the most celebrated composer who wrote for the harpsichord was J. S. Bach (1685–1750), whose solo works (for instance, the Well-Tempered Clavier and the Goldberg Variations), continue to be performed very widely, often on the piano. Bach was also a pioneer of the harpsichord concerto, both in works designated as such, and in the harpsichord part of his Fifth Brandenburg Concerto.
Two of the most prominent composers of the Classical eraJoseph Haydn (1732–1809) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), wrote harpsichord music. For both, the instrument featured in the earlier period of their careers and was abandoned once they had shifted their efforts to the piano.
Besides solo works, the historical harpsichord was widely used for accompaniment in the basso continuo style (a function it maintained in operatic recitative even into the 19th century).

Music written for the revived harpsichord[edit]

Main article: Contemporary harpsichord
Through the 19th century, the harpsichord was almost completely supplanted by the piano. In the 20th century, composers returned to the instrument, as they sought out variation in the sounds available to them. Under the influence of Arnold Dolmetsch, the harpsichordists Violet Gordon-Woodhouse (1872–1951) and in France, Wanda Landowska (1879–1959), were at the forefront of the instrument's renaissance. Concertos for the instrument were written by Francis Poulenc (the Concert champêtre, 1927–28), and Manuel de FallaElliott Carter's Double Concerto is scored for harpsichord, piano and two chamber orchestras. For a detailed account of music composed for the revived harpsichord, see Contempory harpsichord.