Harpsichord - Simple English Wikipedia

# Harpsichord

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Portrait of a girl playing a harpsichord

Harpsichords are keyboard instruments that produce sound by having the strings plucked with a plectrum. They are thought to have originated when a keyboard was attached to a psaltery. This makes them different from a clavichord where the strings are hit. The piano is therefore closer to a clavichord than a harpsichord. On a harpsichord you cannot control the volume (play louder or softer) by the way you play like you can on a piano. However, some large harpsichords have several "stops", each one giving a different kind of sound. The largest harpsichords have two manuals (keyboards) which gives more variety.

Some small harpsichords, like the one in Vermeer's painting, were called "virginals", perhaps because they were played by young girls. There are also "spinets" which were very small and sometimes wing-shaped. They could be picked up and put on a table.

Harpsichords were a major feature of a style of music known as Baroque. They were used as solo instruments as well as to accompany an orchestra. Some of the most famous composers of harpsichord music are William Byrd (1543-1623), François Couperin (1668-1733), Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) and Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).

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Category: Keyboard instruments

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