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Aharmonichord is a kind ofupright piano in which the strings are set in vibration not by the blow of the hammer but by indirectly transmitted friction.[1]
The harmonichord, one of the many attempts to fuse the piano andviolin, was invented by Johann Gottfried Kaufmann and Johann Friedrich Kaufmann (father and son) inSaxony at the beginning of the 19th century, when the craze for new and ingeniousmusical instruments was at its height.[1]
The case was of the variety known as giraffe. The space under thekeyboard was enclosed, a knee-hold being left in which were two pedals used to set in rotation a large woodencylinder fixed just behind the keyboard over thelevers, and covered with a roll-top similar to those of modern office desks. The cylinder (in some specimens covered withchamois leather) tapered towards the treble-end. When a key was depressed, a little tongue of wood, one end of which stopped the string, was pressed against the revolving cylinder, and the vibrations produced byfriction were transmitted to the string and reinforced as in thepiano andviolin by thesoundboard. The adjustment of the parts and the velocity of the cylinder required delicacy and great nicety, for if the little wooden tongues rested too lightly upon the cylinder or the strings,harmonics were produced, and the note jumped to the octave or twelfth.[1][2]Sometimes when chords were played the touch became so heavy that two performers were required, as in the early medievalorganistrum, theprototype of the harmonichord.Carl Maria von Weber must have had some opinion of the possibilities of the harmonichord, which in tone resembled theglass harmonica, since he composed aconcerto withorchestral accompaniment for the instrument.[1]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Schlesinger, Kathleen (1911). "Harmonichord". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 958.
