The clavicymbalum (or clavisymbalum, clavisimbalum, etc.) is an early

keyboard instrument A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers which are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital piano ...

and ancestor of the

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

. The instrument is described as a

psaltery A psaltery ( el, ψαλτήρι) (or sawtry, an archaic form) is a fretboard-less box zither (a simple chordophone) and is considered the archetype of the zither and dulcimer; the harp, virginal, harpsichord and clavichord were also inspired by ...

to which keys, but no dampers, have been attached, allowing the keys rather than the fingers to pluck the strings, which then ring until their sound fades out. (The illustration on this page does not show the clavicymbalum just described. Rather, it shows a much later instrument on which the strings were played by multiple revolving, round bows.) One of its earliest attestations is a 1323 work by

Johannes de Muris Johannes de Muris ( – 1344), or John of Murs, was a French mathematician, astronomer, and music theorist best known for treatises on the '' ars nova'' musical style, titled '' Ars nove musice''. Life and career For a medieval person primarily kn ...

, where it describes a ''monochordium'' as an instrument "with a keyboard of two octaves, of triangular form, with one of the three sides curved." The work of Henri-Arnault de Zwolle (between 1438 and 1446) describes the clavicymbalum as one of the "three types" of keyboard instruments, along with the '' dulce melos'' (an early piano) and the clavicordium (

clavichord The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was mostly used as a practice instrument and as an aid to compositi ...

References

* G. Le Cerf et E.R. Labande, ''Les traités d'Henri-Arnault de Zwolle et de divers anonymes'', Paris, 1932 * Martin-K. Kaufmann, "Le clavier à balancier du clavisimbalum XVe: un moment exceptionnel de l'évolution des instruments à clavier", in ''La Facture de clavecin du XVe au XVIIIe'', Actes du colloque international de Louvain, 1976, Musicologica neolovaniensia. Studia 1, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1980, pp. 9-57. *
The Clavisimbalum of Henri Arnaut de Zwolle
'. Carl Rennoldson, Harpsi.com * * {{cite book , ref={{sfnref, Doppelmayr, 1730 , author = Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr , authorlink= Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr , year = 1730 , title = Historische Nachricht von den nürnbergischen Mathematicis und Künstlern , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PlQxAQAAMAAJ , location = Nürnberg , publisher = Peter Conrad Monath , page
341
(Original from: the University of Michigan; Digitized: 6 Mar 2012; Length: 314 pages) Harpsichord Keyboard instruments Early musical instruments

References

Further reading