Music History (Part 14): Keyboard Instruments
While the violin was spreading throughout Europe, keyboard technology was also rapidly improving. The keyboard instruments of this period used the same keyboard layout as the organ, and their mechanism worked in a similar way to a harp or lute. Pressing the keys caused the inner mechanism to pluck the strings, which lay sideways inside the instrument.
The first mention of a harpsichord is in a court document from Padua in 1397 The oldest depiction is on an altarpiece in Minden (Germany), from 1425.
The oldest-surviving harpsichord is a clavitherium (a harpsichord with the soundboard & strings mounted vertically) from the about 1480, and is held in the Royal College of Music, but it no longer has its inner mechanism. It may have been built in Ulm, its keyboard spans only 41 notes, and it is 1.42m tall.
Minden altarpiece. The second angel is playing a psaltery.
The harpsichord was popular from the late 1400's until the mid-1700's, when the piano was gaining popularity. The oldest-surviving complete harpsichord is Italian, from 1521. Its mechanism is quite sophisticated, suggesting that the techniques for making these instruments was already quite advanced.
In England, France and Holland, well-off families owned virginals, called a “pair of virginals”, although it was one instrument, because it was played with two hands. Henry VIII ordered five in 1530.
Flemish virginals, built by Hans Rucker in 1583.
With keyboard instruments, like the lute, you could play many multiple lines of music at the same time, but the harpsichord had more flexibility & ease of movement than the lute. In the 1500's, music began to be composed specifically for instruments, rather than just for accompanying singers.
The keyboard music of the English composers Tallis, Byrd and John Redford was originally written for singers, but later adapted (by them and others) to be virginals music. The new trend of instrumental music was soon adopted by composers on the continent. Instrumental music was often very difficult, so as to show off the player's skill, especially when the composer & player were the same person.
The most complex instrument of the 1500's was the organ. The oldest playable organ in the world was built sometime between 1390-1435, and is in the Valère Basilica, in the Swiss canton of Valais.
From the 1200's, a lot of music was written specifically for the organ, although little of it has survived. A collection of about 250 pieces for organ was compiled between 1450-70, possibly with the help of Conrad Paumann, who was a well-known blind organist of that time. The compilation is held in the library of Buxheim, a small town in Bavaria (Germany).
