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94-405: A virginals is a smaller and simpler, rectangular or polygonal, form of harpsichord . It has only one string per note, running more or less parallel to the keyboard, on the long side of the case. Many, if not most, of the instruments were constructed without legs, and would be placed on a table for playing. Later models were built with their own stands. The mechanism of the virginals is identical to

188-631: A soundboard , a thin panel of wood usually made of spruce , fir or—in some Italian harpsichords— cypress . The soundboard efficiently transmits 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. While many harpsichords have one string per note, more elaborate harpsichords can have two or more strings for each note. When there are multiple strings for each note, these additional strings are called "choirs" of strings. This provides two advantages:

282-520: A rectangle is a rectilinear convex polygon or a quadrilateral with four right angles . It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90°); or a parallelogram containing a right angle. A rectangle with four sides of equal length is a square . The term " oblong " is used to refer to a non- square rectangle. A rectangle with vertices ABCD would be denoted as [REDACTED]   ABCD . The word rectangle comes from

376-412: A wrest pin ) at the end nearest 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 the pinblock 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

470-570: A 5-octave instrument is F 1 –F 6 (FF–f‴). Tuning pitch is often taken to be A 4  = 415 Hz, roughly a semitone lower than the modern standard concert pitch of A 4  = 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

564-470: A buff stop, which brings a strip of buff leather or other material in contact with the strings, muting their sound to simulate the sound of a plucked lute . The term denotes the whole family of similar plucked-keyboard instruments, including the smaller virginals , muselar , and spinet . The harpsichord was widely used in Renaissance and Baroque music , both as an accompaniment instrument and as

658-553: 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). A lute stop is used to imitate the gentle sound of a plucked lute . The use of multiple manuals in

752-408: 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. 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

846-439: A harpsichord was not originally provided for the flexibility in choosing which strings would sound, but rather for transposition of the instrument to play in different keys (see History of the harpsichord ). Some early harpsichords used a short octave for the lowest register. The rationale behind this system was that the low notes F ♯ and G ♯ are seldom needed in early music . Deep bass notes typically form

940-413: 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, a few pieces are believed to have been written specifically for the pedal harpsichord. However, the set of pedals can augment the sound from any piece performed on

1034-431: A pentagon. The unique ratio of side lengths is a b = 0.815023701... {\displaystyle \displaystyle {\frac {a}{b}}=0.815023701...} . A crossed quadrilateral (self-intersecting) consists of two opposite sides of a non-self-intersecting quadrilateral along with the two diagonals. Similarly, a crossed rectangle is a crossed quadrilateral which consists of two opposite sides of

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1128-406: A rectangle along with the two diagonals. It has the same vertex arrangement as the rectangle. It appears as two identical triangles with a common vertex, but the geometric intersection is not considered a vertex. A crossed quadrilateral is sometimes likened to a bow tie or butterfly , sometimes called an "angular eight". A three-dimensional rectangular wire frame that is twisted can take

1222-434: A rectangle is a rhombus , as shown in the table below. A rectangle is a rectilinear polygon : its sides meet at right angles. A rectangle in the plane can be defined by five independent degrees of freedom consisting, for example, of three for position (comprising two of translation and one of rotation ), one for shape ( aspect ratio ), and one for overall size (area). Two rectangles, neither of which will fit inside

1316-435: A rectangle. A parallelogram with equal diagonals is a rectangle. The Japanese theorem for cyclic quadrilaterals states that the incentres of the four triangles determined by the vertices of a cyclic quadrilateral taken three at a time form a rectangle. The British flag theorem states that with vertices denoted A , B , C , and D , for any point P on the same plane of a rectangle: For every convex body C in

1410-522: A soloing instrument. During the Baroque era, the harpsichord was a standard part of the continuo group . The basso continuo part acted as the foundation for many musical pieces in this era. During the late 18th century, with the development of the fortepiano (and then the increasing use of the piano in the 19th century) the harpsichord gradually disappeared from the musical scene (except in opera, where it continued to be used to accompany recitative ). In

1504-492: A trigger mechanism that plucks one or more strings with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic. The strings are under tension on a soundboard , which is mounted in a wooden case; the soundboard amplifies the vibrations from the strings so that the listeners can hear it. Like a pipe organ , a harpsichord may have more than one keyboard manual , and even a pedal board . Harpsichords may also have stop buttons which add or remove additional octaves. Some harpsichords may have

1598-616: A tuning other than equal temperament is used, the instrument requires retuning once the keyboard is shifted. Throughout the historical period, the harpsichord was characteristically decorated; for extensive discussion and illustration see Kottick (2003). Cases were painted in bright colors (especially in 18th century France), or covered with elaborate wood veneer (18th century England), or adorned with sculptural moldings and knobs (Italy). Soundboards bore paintings, either of individual items such as flowers and animals (Flanders, also France), or even (in expensive instruments), full-scale paintings of

1692-422: A two-foot (2') 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

1786-414: A unique rectangle with sides a {\displaystyle a} and b {\displaystyle b} , where a {\displaystyle a} is less than b {\displaystyle b} , with two ways of being folded along a line through its center such that the area of overlap is minimized and each area yields a different shape – a triangle and

1880-419: 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. Such tables were often quite high – until the late 18th century people usually played standing up. 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

1974-405: A warm, rich, resonant sound, with a strong fundamental and weak overtones. However, this comes at a price: the jacks and keys for the left hand are inevitably placed in the middle of the instrument's soundboard , with the result that any mechanical noise from these is amplified. In addition to mechanical noise, from the string vibrating against the descending plectrum , the central plucking point in

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2068-432: Is a convex quadrilateral which has at least one pair of parallel opposite sides. A convex quadrilateral is De Villiers defines a rectangle more generally as any quadrilateral with axes of symmetry through each pair of opposite sides. This definition includes both right-angled rectangles and crossed rectangles. Each has an axis of symmetry parallel to and equidistant from a pair of opposite sides, and another which

2162-594: Is an instrument in the shape of a clavichord, having metal strings which give it the timbre of a clavicembalo. It has 32 courses of strings set in motion by striking the fingers on projecting keys, giving a dulcet tone in both whole and half steps. It is called a virginal because, like a virgin, it sounds with a gentle and undisturbed voice." The Oxford English Dictionary records its first mention in English in 1530, when King Henry VIII of England purchased five instruments so named. Small, early virginals were played either in

2256-422: 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 (this usually means two keyboards, stacked one on top of the other in a step-wise fashion, as with pipe organs) provide flexibility in selecting which strings play, since each manual can be set to control

2350-433: Is found in the later Flemish instruments and those derived from them. 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

2444-469: Is his series of 555 harpsichord sonatas . Perhaps the most celebrated composers who wrote for the harpsichord were Georg Friedrich Händel (1685–1759), who composed numerous suites for harpsichord, and especially 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

2538-406: 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

2632-425: Is placed left of centre, and the strings are plucked at one end, although farther from the bridge than in the harpsichord. This is the more common arrangement for modern instruments, and an instrument described simply as a "virginal" is likely to be a spinet virginals. The principal differences in construction lie mainly in the placement of the keyboard: Italian instruments invariably had a keyboard that projected from

2726-477: Is the perpendicular bisector of those sides, but, in the case of the crossed rectangle, the first axis is not an axis of symmetry for either side that it bisects. Quadrilaterals with two axes of symmetry, each through a pair of opposite sides, belong to the larger class of quadrilaterals with at least one axis of symmetry through a pair of opposite sides. These quadrilaterals comprise isosceles trapezia and crossed isosceles trapezia (crossed quadrilaterals with

2820-580: 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. The English "dogleg" jack system (also used in Baroque Flanders) does not require

2914-406: Is used in many periodic tessellation patterns, in brickwork , for example, these tilings: A rectangle tiled by squares, rectangles, or triangles is said to be a "squared", "rectangled", or "triangulated" (or "triangled") rectangle respectively. The tiled rectangle is perfect if the tiles are similar and finite in number and no two tiles are the same size. If two such tiles are the same size,

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3008-426: The ottavino . The jacks of the larger instrument now activated the keys of the ottavino , so that both instruments sounded simultaneously, giving a more brilliant effect. Among the instruments in the inventory of Henry VIII of England , drawn up by Philip Van Wilder in 1553, there are mentions of "twoo pair of double virginalles", "one new pair of double virginalles", and other obscure references. These predate

3102-493: The Kirkman and Shudi firms produced sophisticated harpsichords of great power and sonority. German builders such as Hieronymus Albrecht Hass 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. Around the year 1700 the first fortepiano was built by Bartolomeo Cristofori . The early fortepiano uses percussion,

3196-746: The Latin rectangulus , which is a combination of rectus (as an adjective, right, proper) and angulus ( angle ). A crossed rectangle is a crossed (self-intersecting) quadrilateral which consists of two opposite sides of a rectangle along with the two diagonals (therefore only two sides are parallel). It is a special case of an antiparallelogram , and its angles are not right angles and not all equal, though opposite angles are equal. Other geometries, such as spherical , elliptic , and hyperbolic , have so-called rectangles with opposite sides equal in length and equal angles that are not right angles. Rectangles are involved in many tiling problems, such as tiling

3290-615: The Virgin Mary , as it was used by nuns to accompany hymns in honour of the Virgin. In England, during the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras , any stringed keyboard instrument was often described as a virginals, and could equally apply to a harpsichord or possibly even a clavichord or spinet . Thus, the masterworks of William Byrd and his contemporaries were often played on full-size, Italian or Flemish harpsichords, and not only on

3384-432: The harpichordium (also arpichordium ), which consists of lead hooks being lightly applied against the ends of the bass strings in such a manner that the string vibrating against the hook produces a buzzing, snarling sound. Muselars were popular in the 16th and 17th centuries and their ubiquity has been compared to that of the upright piano in the early 20th century, but like other types of virginals they fell out of use in

3478-437: The harpsichord 's, in that its wire strings are plucked by a set of plectra , mounted in jacks. Its case, however, is rectangular or polygonal, and the single choir of strings—one per note—runs roughly parallel to the keyboard. The strings are plucked either near one end, as with the harpsichord, or, in the case of the muselar, nearer the middle, producing a more flute -like tone that's reduced in upper harmonics. The origin of

3572-476: The root of the chord, and F ♯ and G ♯ chords were seldom used at this time. In contrast, low C and D, both roots of very common chords, are sorely missed if a harpsichord with lowest key E is tuned to match the keyboard layout. When scholars specify the pitch range of instruments with this kind of short octave, they write "C/E", meaning that the lowest note is a C, played on a key that normally would sound E. In another arrangement , known as "G/B',

3666-510: The 18th century. Both Italian and northern schools produced a miniature virginals called the ottavino . Ottavini were pitched an octave higher than the larger instrument. In the Flemish tradition these were often – perhaps always – sold together with a large virginals, to which the ottavino could be coupled (see Double virginals below). In the Italian tradition, an ottavino

3760-417: The 19th and 20th centuries. A selection of English "virginal books" includes: Extant Virginals at The Metropolitan Museum of Art "Virginal"  . Collier's New Encyclopedia . 1921. "Virginal"  . New International Encyclopedia . 1905. Harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard . This activates a row of levers that turn

3854-465: The 20th century, it made a resurgence, being used in historically informed performances of older music, in new compositions, and, in rare cases, in certain styles of popular music (e.g., Baroque pop ). The harpsichord was most likely invented in the late Middle Ages. By the 16th century, harpsichord makers in Italy were making lightweight instruments with low tension brass stringing. A different approach

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3948-466: The 4' pitch, and most probably none were ever made by his workshop. Whilst many early virginals throughout Europe were left in plain wood, they were soon provided with rich decoration, which may have contributed to the survival of many such instruments. From mouldings on case edges, jackrails and namebattens to adornment with ivory , mother-of-pearl , marble , agate , tortoiseshell or semi-precious stones , not to mention intricate painting, no expense

4042-423: The Italian models often having an outer case like harpsichords from that country. There are very few surviving English virginals, all of them late. They generally follow the Flemish construction, but with a vaulted lid. Muselars (also muselaar ) were made only in northern Europe. Here, the keyboard is placed right of centre and the strings are plucked about one-third the way along their sounding length. This gives

4136-424: The 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

4230-502: The apparent lowest key B is tuned to G, and apparent C-sharp and D-sharp are tuned to A and B respectively. The wooden 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

4324-407: The bass makes repetition difficult, because the motion of the still-sounding string interferes with the ability of the plectrum to connect again. An 18th-century commentator (Van Blankenberg, 1739) wrote that muselars "grunt in the bass like young pigs". Thus the muselar was better suited to chord -and- melody music without complex left hand parts. The muselar could also be provided with a stop called

4418-483: The case, whilst northern virginals had their keyboards recessed in a keywell. The cases of Italian instruments were made of cypress wood and were of delicate manufacture, whilst northern virginals were usually more stoutly constructed of poplar. Early Italian virginals were usually hexagonal in shape, the case following the lines of the strings and bridges, and a few early Flemish examples are similarly made. From about 1580 however, nearly all virginals were rectangular ,

4512-466: The case. 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 the gap. The English diarist Samuel Pepys mentions his "tryangle" several times. This

4606-404: The current scene. Harpsichords vary in size and shape, but all have the same basic mechanism. 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 , often made of plastic in the 21st century), which plucks the string. When the player releases the key,

4700-463: The double keyboards were adapted to control different choirs of strings, making a more musically flexible instrument (so-called 'expressive doubles'). 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,

4794-406: The earliest extant Mother and Child virginal by 30 years (the 1581 Hans Ruckers), and the earliest known double manual harpsichords by about 60 years. The term may have referred to the number of stops on the instrument, or perhaps its range. The keyboard compass of most virginals was C 2 /E 2 to C 6 (45 notes, 4 octaves), which allowed the performance of the music contemporarily available for

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4888-714: 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' or 'double' virginals. Occasionally, harpsichords were built which included another set or sets of strings underneath and played by foot-operated pedal keyboard which trigger

4982-415: The far end returns to its rest position, and the jack falls back; the plectrum, mounted on a tongue mechanism 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. Each string is wound around a tuning pin (also known as

5076-520: The final result looked like a gothic rose window , or an inverted wedding cake . In Flemish instruments, the rose was usually cast from lead and gilded, and usually incorporated the maker's initials. The word virginals could historically be applied to any stringed keyboard instrument, and since there was very rarely any indication of instrumentation on musical scores in the heyday of the virginals, there are hardly any compositions that can be said to be specifically for that instrument. Indeed, nearly all

5170-484: The forefront of the instrument's renaissance. Concertos for the instrument were written by Francis Poulenc (the Concert champêtre , 1927–28), and Manuel de Falla . Elliott 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 Contemporary harpsichord . Rectangular In Euclidean plane geometry ,

5264-490: 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 Hubbard , William 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

5358-400: The higher harmonics , and produces a "nasal" sound quality. The mechanism of the instrument, called "stops" (following the use of the term in pipe organs ) 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

5452-456: The inside was decorated with elaborate block-printed papers. Occasionally the inside of the lid bore a decorative scene; more often it was covered with block-printed papers embellished with a Latin motto , usually connected with morality or music. Mottos could also be applied to the keywell batten. Some typical mottos include: The Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer was one among several who produced paintings including examples of virginals. There

5546-407: The instrument, as demonstrated on several albums by E. Power Biggs . 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

5640-720: The instruments. The lower octave was tuned to a short octave , so that the bottom E sounded C 2 , the bottom F ♯ sounded D 2 , and the bottom G ♯ sounded E 2 , thus allowing some frequently-required low bass notes to take over the positions of keys that were rarely used in the contemporary repertory and avoiding building a larger instrument. Some Italian models ranged from C 2 to F 6 (54 notes, 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 octaves). Virginals were available in various sizes. The Dutch organist and harpsichordist Class Douwes (circa 1650 – circa 1725) mentions instruments from nominal 6 feet (1.8 m) down to 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 feet (0.76 m). The pitch differences between

5734-420: The keyboard music of the renaissance sounds equally well on harpsichord, virginals, clavichord or organ, and it is doubtful if any composer had a particular instrument in mind when writing keyboard scores. A list of composers for writing for the virginals (among other instruments) may be found under virginalist . Although the "virginalist school" usually refers to English composers, it would not be incorrect to use

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5828-420: The kind usually executed on canvas. Keyboards could have the same "white keys" and "black keys" that pianos have today, but builders frequently employed the opposite pattern, with white sharps and black naturals. The study of harpsichord decoration became an important scholarly field in the 20th century, notably with the work of Sheridan Germann (2002), whose knowledge extended to the point of being able to pin down

5922-623: The lap, or more commonly, rested on a table, but nearly all later examples were provided with their own stands. The heyday of the virginals was the latter half of the 16th century to the later 17th century, until the high Baroque period , when it was eclipsed in England by the bentside spinet , and in Germany, by the clavichord . Spinet virginals (not to be confused with the spinet ) were made principally in Italy ( Italian : spinetta ), England and Flanders ( Dutch : spinetten ). The keyboard

6016-471: The models offered by the Ruckers workshops were by no means arbitrary, but corresponded to the musical intervals of a tone, a fourth , a fifth , an octave , and a ninth. Pitch assignments have been suggested for these instruments based on scalings provided by Douwes. Most modern instruments are full-sized ones at 8′ pitch or ottavini at 4′ pitch, although there are no surviving Ruckers instruments at

6110-511: The most famous composers who wrote for the harpsichord were the members of English virginal school of the late Renaissance, notably William Byrd ( c. 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

6204-412: The name is obscure. It may derive from the Latin virga meaning a rod, perhaps referring to the wooden jacks that rest on the ends of the keys, but this is unproven. Another possibility is that the name derives from the word virgin , as it was most commonly played by young women, or from its sound, which is like a young girl's voice ( vox virginalis ). A further view is that the name derives from

6298-458: The note sounded by the higher string. When describing a harpsichord it is customary to specify its choirs of strings, often called its disposition . To describe the pitch of the choirs of strings, pipe organ terminology is used. Strings at eight-foot pitch (8') sound at the normal expected pitch, strings at four-foot pitch (4') sound an octave higher. Harpsichords occasionally include a sixteen-foot (16') choir (one octave lower than eight-foot) or

6392-418: The other, are said to be incomparable . If a rectangle has length ℓ {\displaystyle \ell } and width w {\displaystyle w} , then: The isoperimetric theorem for rectangles states that among all rectangles of a given perimeter , the square has the largest area . The midpoints of the sides of any quadrilateral with perpendicular diagonals form

6486-401: The outer case contained an inner one, in the old style. 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 music stand for holding sheet music and scores. Harpsichords have been decorated in

6580-469: The outside and exceed 180°. A rectangle and a crossed rectangle are quadrilaterals with the following properties in common: [REDACTED] In spherical geometry , a spherical rectangle is a figure whose four edges are great circle arcs which meet at equal angles greater than 90°. Opposite arcs are equal in length. The surface of a sphere in Euclidean solid geometry is a non-Euclidean surface in

6674-625: The particular anonymous artists who worked with particular builders. The great bulk of the standard repertoire for the harpsichord was written during its first historical flowering, the Renaissance and Baroque eras. 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 suites , fantasias , and fugues . Among

6768-468: The piano starting roughly in the late 1770s. 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

6862-517: The plane by rectangles or tiling a rectangle by polygons . A convex quadrilateral is a rectangle if and only if it is any one of the following: A rectangle is a special case of a parallelogram in which each pair of adjacent sides is perpendicular . A parallelogram is a special case of a trapezium (known as a trapezoid in North America) in which both pairs of opposite sides are parallel and equal in length . A trapezium

6956-439: The plane, we can inscribe a rectangle r in C such that a homothetic copy R of r is circumscribed about C and the positive homothety ratio is at most 2 and 0.5  × Area ( R ) ≤ Area ( C ) ≤ 2  × Area ( r ) {\displaystyle 0.5{\text{ × Area}}(R)\leq {\text{Area}}(C)\leq 2{\text{ × Area}}(r)} . There exists

7050-413: The plucking of a different set of strings. This means that a player can have, for instance, an 8' manual and a 4' manual ready for use, making it possible to switch between them to obtain higher (or lower) pitches or different tone. In addition, such harpsichords often have a mechanism (the "coupler") that couples manuals together, so that a single manual plays both sets of strings. The most flexible system

7144-504: The plucking of the lowest-pitched 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 Prior to 1980 when Keith Hill introduced his design for

7238-417: The same vertex arrangement as isosceles trapezia). A rectangle is cyclic : all corners lie on a single circle . It is equiangular : all its corner angles are equal (each of 90 degrees ). It is isogonal or vertex-transitive : all corners lie within the same symmetry orbit . It has two lines of reflectional symmetry and rotational symmetry of order 2 (through 180°). The dual polygon of

7332-511: The sense of elliptic geometry. Spherical geometry is the simplest form of elliptic geometry. In elliptic geometry , an elliptic rectangle is a figure in the elliptic plane whose four edges are elliptic arcs which meet at equal angles greater than 90°. Opposite arcs are equal in length. In hyperbolic geometry , a hyperbolic rectangle is a figure in the hyperbolic plane whose four edges are hyperbolic arcs which meet at equal angles less than 90°. Opposite arcs are equal in length. The rectangle

7426-403: The shape of a bow tie. The interior of a crossed rectangle can have a polygon density of ±1 in each triangle, dependent upon the winding orientation as clockwise or counterclockwise. A crossed rectangle may be considered equiangular if right and left turns are allowed. As with any crossed quadrilateral , the sum of its interior angles is 720°, allowing for internal angles to appear on

7520-425: The soundboards of both northern and Italian virginals were pierced with a rose , sometimes two or three in early days. The rose had no acoustic function, and was purely decorative. Although these were a throwback to the rose in the medieval lute , they were never carved integrally as part of the soundboard. In Italian instruments they were usually constructed by combining multiple layers of pierced parchment , so that

7614-474: The strings being struck with leathered paper hammers instead of being plucked. Unlike the harpsichord, the fortepiano is capable of changes in dynamic volume, giving it its name. By 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. Twentieth-century efforts to revive

7708-464: The tiling is imperfect . In a perfect (or imperfect) triangled rectangle the triangles must be right triangles . A database of all known perfect rectangles, perfect squares and related shapes can be found at squaring.net . The lowest number of squares need for a perfect tiling of a rectangle is 9 and the lowest number needed for a perfect tilling a square is 21, found in 1978 by computer search. A rectangle has commensurable sides if and only if it

7802-461: 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. The harpsichord uses the bass clef (F clef). 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

7896-570: The virginals as we call it today. Contemporary nomenclature often referred to a pair of virginals , which implied a single instrument, possibly a harpsichord with two registers, or a double virginals (see below). Like the harpsichord, the virginals has its origins in the psaltery , to which a keyboard was applied, probably in the 15th century. The first mention of the word is in Paulus Paulirinus of Prague's (1413–1471) Tractatus de musica , of around 1460, where he writes: "The virginal

7990-399: The word in connection with some continental keyboard composers of the period, such as Girolamo Frescobaldi and Giovanni Picchi , or Samuel Scheidt and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck . Out of the some dozen so-called English "virginal books", only Elizabeth Rogers' Virginal Book actually bears the word in its original title: the other collections were attributed the name by music scholars in

8084-437: 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

8178-466: 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 era , Joseph 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 largely supplanted by

8272-444: Was an instrument that could be folded up to make it more compact, thus facilitating travelling with it. 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

8366-524: Was no such "standard decoration" for Italian virginals. Where there was an outer case, it was often this that was decorated, leaving the actual instrument plain (typically for Venetian virginals). Cases could be decorated with paintings of grotesques , classical scenes, or marquetry , but soundboards were rarely painted. Keytops could be of plain boxwood , or lavishly decorated (as was often the case in northern Italy) with ivory, ebony , mother-of-pearl or tortoiseshell among other materials. Traditionally,

8460-587: Was not the percussion instrument that we call triangle today; rather, it was a name for octave-pitched spinets, which were triangular in shape. A clavicytherium is a harpsichord with the soundboard and strings mounted vertically facing the player, the same space-saving principle as an upright piano . In a clavicytherium, the jacks move horizontally without the assistance of gravity, so that clavicytherium actions are more complex than those of other harpsichords. Ottavini are small spinets or virginals at four-foot pitch . Harpsichords at octave pitch were more common in

8554-434: Was spared by those who could afford it. Most Flemish virginals had their soundboards painted with flowers, fruit, birds, caterpillars, moths and even cooked prawns, all within blue scalloped borders and intricate blue arabesques . Many of these motifs appear to be resurrection symbols. Natural keys were normally covered in bone, and sharps were of oak or, less commonly, chestnut. The case exteriors were usually marbled, whilst

8648-411: Was stored (rather like a drawer) under the soundboard next to the keyboard of the larger instrument, and could be withdrawn and played as a separate keyboard instrument. However, the two instruments could also be coupled together, the ottavino being placed over the strings of the larger virginals (once the jackrail was removed), so that the jacks of the latter passed through a slot in the bottom of

8742-575: 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 with higher tension steel treble stringing. These 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,

8836-447: Was usually a separate instrument of its own, being fitted in its own outer case, just like larger Italian instruments. The Flemish school , in particular the Ruckers family, produced a special type of virginals known as Mother and Child ( moeder und kind ). This consisted of two instruments in one: a normal virginals (either spinet or muselar) with one 8′ register, and an ottavino with one 4′ register. The smaller ottavino

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