Plutius, in his history of the Popes, says that Vitalian I. introduced organs between the years 660 and 670 A.D. for the purpose of accompany ing the voice. There was an organ in Halberstadt, Germany, that was built in 1351, and had four manuals, but the pedal was not added until the fifteenth century. The keys of that organ were three inches in width, and were separated from each other by spaces of half an inch. It had twenty bellows and required ten men to force air into the pipes. To each bellows was affixed a wooden shoe into which the bellows blower inserted his foot, and above his head was placed a strong bar of wood to which he clung as he exerted pressure upon the clumsy bellows with heavy, alternating tread. Of the two greatest advances possible in the instrument itself, the introduction of the finger board and the addition of pedals, the former was the most important, and although Guido is generally considered to have been the inventor, the date of the invention cannot be positively ascertained. Their earliest mention is in 757 A. D., when Constantine V. sent an organ having finger keys to Pepin, King of France. These keys were similar to the carillons of the Netherlands, being four or five inches in width. The pedal was certainly invented by a German named Bernhard in 1470. The organ has been improved in modern times, especially during this century, yet no modern improvements can compare in importance with that of Bernhard, for, in adding to the powers of the performer, he added to the resources of music by calling into existence tones of a depth and volume unknown before. The gradual improvement in organ building brought a greater facility for manipulating the keys; harmonic playing became more universal, and with it came the establishment of the polyphonic school. Thus vocal and instrumental music were wedded, and the music of the church was in its glory.

The people outside the fold of the church, too, longed for the divine art. It is true that they possessed the lute and harp as accompanying instruments for their love songs, and that the viols and violins enlivened their rustic dances; but while flutes and trumpets were heard at their festive boards, an instrument was needed upon which the divine character of the church music could enter into the home. The clavichord perfectly supplied this want and served the composers as a medium for the polyphonic music-their fugues and canons and even to reproduce the sustained tone of the human voice. In its consignment to oblivion we have suffered a loss in that it is the

sion. A musical critic of Leipsic wrote in 1782, relative to the piano of that day, that through it "the heart cannot express itself. No picture can be completely produced, as light and shadows cannot be expressed; only a clearly defined sketch can be made. The clavichord, however stands highest of all. Although on account of its nature excluded from the concert hall, it is the companion of the recluse. Here I can reproduce the feelings of my heart; can shade and fully express them. In order to judge a virtuoso one must listen to him while at the clavichordnot at the piano." Its early history, previous to the fifteenth century, together with that of the chromatic keyboard, rests in profound obscurity. The very earliest mention of the clavichord oc curs in Eberhard Cersne's "Rules of the Minnesingers" A. D. 1404, in which he speaks also of the monochord and other musical instruments in use at that time. The absence of any prior mention or illustration of keyed instruments is nega tive evidence only, but it may be assumed to prove their invention to have been shortly before that date-say in the latter half of the fourteenth century. Jean de Muris, writing in 1323 and enumerating musical instruments, makes no refe erence to the clavichord, but describes the manochord as in use for measuring intervals.

This prototype of the clavichord was a most primitive instrument, said to have been invented by Pythagoras in the sixth century B. C., but its principle was used by the Egyptians 2,400 years before. The instrument was used for centuries in the church to initiate the singers into the mysteries of the eight tones, and consisted of a long box of thin wood, having a bridge fixed at each end, over which was stretched originally but one string, and by plucking this string in the centre a tone was produced. The exact octave of this fundamental tone was obtained by placing a movable bridge so that it divided the string into two equal parts. As the vibrations of the two sections are thus doubled each half vibrates twice as rapidly as the whole. When the string was divided into three vibrating segments the fifth above the octave was produced, and so on. Ultimately it was found more convenient to dispense with shifting bridges, and at the points of division to adjust fixed bridges, and in the eleventh century many strings had been added. Out of this grew the clavichord, the sweet-toned instrument which Koch, in his musical lexicon, describes as "Labsal des Dulders, und des Frohsinns theilnehmender Freund" (the comfort of the sufferer, and the sympathizing friend of cheerfulness), and of which the poet and musician

CLAVICHORD (4 OCTAVES), 1620.

Ch. Fr. Daniel Schubart said: "The musical coloring cannot be executed on the piano in all its nuances; but the clavichord-this solitary, melancholy and inexpressibly sweet instrumentif it is made by a master, is preferable to the grand and forte piano." The great masters of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries wrote their most delightful compositions for this instrument, and Sebastian Bach's beautiful creations were nearly all written for it, and should not be attempted upon the piano, it being almost impossible upon that instrument to do them justice. Forkel says that Bach delighted in the clavichord, preferring it for study and for private musical entertainments. He did not consider it possible to produce such a variety in the gradations of tones from any harpsichord or piano, although the tone of the clavichord he admitted to be extremely weak. It became also the favorite instrunent of Handel, Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, and even of Beethoven, who said of it: "Among all keyed instruments, the clavichord is that on which one can best control tone and expressive interpretation."

The lower, or natural, keys of the clavichord are usually black; the upper, or chromatic, are white. The strings, of finely drawn brass wire, are stretched nearly in the direction of the length of the case, but with a bias toward the back. On the right of the player are inserted in the soundboard-strengthened on the under side by a slip of oak to receive them-the wrest or tuning pins, around which the strings are fastened, while at the back and partly along the left side of the case they are attached by small eyes to hitch pins of thicker wire. On the right the strings rest upon a curved bridge, pinned to fix their direction and conducting their sound waves to the soundboard, a flat surface of wood beneath, extending partly over the instrument. Nearly at the back of each key, in an upright position, there was placed a small brass wedge, or "tangent," about an inch. high and an eighth of an inch broad at the top. The tangent, when the key was put down, rose to the string, and pressing it upward, set it in vibration. With a good touch the player could

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feel the elasticity of the string, and the more this was felt the better the instrument was considered to be. By the pressure of the tangent the string was divided into two unequal lengths, each of which would have vibrated, but the shorter was instantly damped " by a narrow band of cloth interlaced with the strings, which also damped the longer section as soon as the player allowed the key to rise and the tangent to fall. The tangent not only produced the tones, but served as a second bridge. with which to measure off the vibrating lengths required for the pitch of the notes. Thus a delicate tone was obtained that had something in it charmingly fascinating. Those made prior to the last century had strings for the lower or natural keys only, the semitones on the upper keys being produced by tangents directed toward the strings of the lower. Thus C sharp was obtained by striking the C string at a shorter length. About the year 1725 Daniel Faber, of Crailsheim, gave the semitone its own string, and instruments so made were distinguished as "Bundfrie" from the older "Gebunden," which was a system of "fretting." In Mr. Steinert's collection are three beautiful old specimens. One of them was made during the sixteenth century. Though the clavichord may have been introduced long previously in England, the first mention of it is in the year 1500, when William Cornish "composed in the Fleete" "A Treatise between Truth and Informacion," in which the following passage occurs:

The clavichord makers held in greatest repute were Wilhelme, of Cassel, and Venesky and Horn, of Dresden. After the clavichord came into general use it was considered inadequate for concert purposes, and the idea arose of constructing an instrument whose strings could be set into stronger vibration by means of more powerful tangents. Of the stringed instruments that could be adapted to this purpose there were known in the Middle Ages, in addition to the harp, the psaltery and the dulcimer.

The psaltery, in triangular, square, curved or harplike form, was either carried with a ribbon. around the neck, or when used was placed on some piece of furniture. Its strings were operated by means of a plectrum, which was fastened by rings to the hand of the performer. This is the prototype of the virginal, spinet and harpsichord, all of which are made on the plectrum principle, and therefore are incapable of dynamic modification of tone by difference of touch. strings are set in vibration by points of raven or crow quill, elevated on wooden uprights called "jacks," twitching or plucking them as the depression of the keys causes the points to pass upward. The tone produced is described by Dr. Burney as a scratch with a sound at the end of it."

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The

The first of these instruments to be introduced to the public was the virginal, so called, it is thought by some, from having been admired by the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth; but Dr. Johnson

considers its name to have been derived from its being principally cultivated by young ladies, or else from its being greatly used in convents in accompanying hymns to the Virgin. It is of an oblong shape, with brass wire strings arranged somewhat in the form of a half-triangle, and with but one string to each note. Some of those of earliest manufacture were made in the upright form, but those in the horizontal position became more popular. One of Queen Elizabeth's virginals is still in existence in Worcestershire. At the sale of Lord Spencer's effects at Chichester it was described as having a case of cedar covered with crimson Genoa velvet, the inside of the case lined with strong yellow

silk." It is light and portable, weighing but four pounds; five feet in length, sixteen inches wide and seven inches deep. The front is covered entirely with gold. There are fifty keys with jacks and quills, thirty of them ebony tipped with gold, and the semitone keys, twenty in number, are inlaid with silver, ivory and different kinds of wood, each key consisting of about 250 pieces. The paintings of the royal arms and the ornamentation give it a most beautiful appearance.

Sir James Melvil, in his "Memoirs," gives an amusing account of a curious conversation which he had with Queen Elizabeth, to whom he had been sent on an embassy by Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1564. After her majesty had asked how his queen dressed, which of the two sovereigns dressed the better, which of the two was the fairer, etc., she inquired, on learning that Queen Mary sometimes recreated herself in playing upon the luto

and virginal. If the paged me „, and was answered : "Kannany, for a queer. “T..e same day, after dinner, my Lori of Hanslean drew me up to a quiet guiery that I might near some music (but he said ne duret not own it), where I might near the queen play upon the virginal.... I ventured within the chamber, and stood a pretty pace, hearing her play excellently well; but she left off immediately as soon as she turned her about and saw me. She appeared to be surprised to see me, and came forward seeming to strike me with her hand, alleging that she was not used to play before men, bat when she was solitary, to shun melancholy.”

The motion of the keys and jacks in this instrument was the cause of the well-known sarcasm of Lord Oxford, which is thus described by Isaac Reed: When Queen Elizabeth was playing on the virginal, Lord Oxford remarking the motion of the keys, said, in a covert allusion to Raleigh's favor at court, and the execution of Essex: "When jacks start up heads go down."

The spinet resembles the virginal in construction, except that in shape those of the Italian and English makes are nearly that of the harp laid horizontally, supposing the keyboard to be placed on the outside of the trunk or sounding board, while the German spinet looks like the clavichord. It is said to be the invention of the Venetian Spinetti. Banchieri, in 1608, derives the name "spinetta" from this maker. At the South Kensington Museum, London, is, amongst others, a most beautiful specimen of the spinet, with the inscription upon it, " Anniballis de Roxis, Medeiolanensis, MDLXXVII." It is almost covered with precious stones, as even the keys are profusely ornamented with them. Its compass is four octaves and an eighth, from E. Like the virginal, the spinet has but one string to a note. When the second string was added to each note, to render the instrument more powerful, it was named the harpsichord, or horizontal harp, and was used mainly in concert halls. The harpsichord is, in effect, a double spinet, as two rows of quills are used. When the performer wishes to play softly he is compelled to take one hand from the keyboard and move a stop to the right. A single string only is then twanged by the quill, the second row of jacks and quills being moved by the rail in which they are fixed, so that, when raised by the key, the quills pass between the strings without setting them in vibration. Many rows of jacks, and in some instances an additional set of keys and other ingenious inventions, were from time to time added to the harpsichord, until this instrument became quite an intricate piece of mechanism.

A description of the one bequeathed by Handel to his secretary, Smith, who wrote the music that Handel composed, will explain many of the improvements introduced in the harpsichord. This instrument was manufactured by the celebrated Hans Ruckers, of Antwerp, and is on exhibition in the South Kensington Museum, London. It is six feet eight inches in length, three feet in height from the ground, and three feet in width. The case is the same shape as that of the modern grand piano, and is made of black japanned deal, with painted ornaments inside the top and upon the sounding board. It has too rows of keys, the compass of each of which is four octaves and seven-eighths, G to F. Each of the upper keys has but one quill and one string; the lower row, by use of the stops, can be made to raise quills to strike one or two strings. The harpsichord is, like the spinet, totally incapable of expression; yet Handel's performance upon it must have been very fine, for, even when his loss of sight compelled him to trust to his inventive powers in playing, his embellishments of the vocal and orchestral score at the Opera House, London, were so admirable that the attention of the audience was frequently diverted from the singing to the accompaniment. This marked preference greatly mortified the singers, one of whom warned Handel that if he ever played him such a trick again he would jump down upon his instrument and put an end to the nuisance. Handel was excessively amused at this outburst, and, with his usual dry humor, said: "You vill jump, vill you?" Very vell, sare; be so kind and tell me ven you vill jump, and I vill advertishe it in de bills."

The Ruckers, of Antwerp, stood highest in the art of harpsichord making, and Hans Ruckers, in 1585, was the inventor of the third string tuned to the octave; he also extended the compass to nearly five octaves. It was the school of the Ruckers, transferred to England by a Fleming named Tabel, that was the real basis of the manufacture of harpsicords as a distinct business in that country, separating it from organ building, with which it had been combined. Tabel's pupils, Burkhard Tschudi and Jacobus Kirkman, became famous in the last century, developing the harpsichord in the direction of power to the furthest limit. The quill plectra so quickly wore out that various substitutes were tried, as the process of quilling took many hours; but neither leather, tortoise shell," ivory, nor any of the substances used, were found to answer as well as the crow quill. Harpsichords were constructed with more than twenty modifications to imitate the sound of the harp, lute, mandolin, bassoon, flageolet, oboe, violin and other instruments. In order to produce these

different effects new rows of jacks were added, which were furnished with materials of the softest kind and most conducive to expression; and yet, with all the complications of stops, springs, extra rows of keys, and Venetian swells over the strings, the grand secret-the real shading of the piano and forte-was still wanting. Nothing better was devised for augmenting or diminishing the sound than to put in motion different rows of jacks, so as to withdraw them from or approximate them to the strings at pleasure.

Godfrey Silbermann, of Freiburg, made several improvements in the harpsichord about the middle of the eighteenth century, especially in the keyboard, which he extended, and in the touch, which he lightened. He also revived the clavichord in a slightly altered form, calling it the clavecin d'amour. In it the strings were struck and pressed up exactly in the middle by the brass wedge, which formed a middle bridge, allowing the string to vibrate in the lengths behind and in front of it. This was a step in the right direction, although a step backward.

At one time during the seventeenth century the common guitar was so much in vogue among all ranks of people as to nearly ruin the harpsichord and spinet manufacturers. Burney, in "Rees's Cyclopedia," article "Guitar," says that "ladies sold their harpsichords for a third of their cost, till Kirkman, after spending nearly all his money in buying up these instruments for better times, made a present of a number of cheap guitars to girls in milliners' shops and to ballad singers. He then sent them through the streets singing to a few accompaniments that he had taught them. In this manner he soon made the ladies ashamed of their vulgar and frivolous taste."

There are some very good specimens of the harpsichord in this country. One made by John Hitchcock, in the year 1658, and now in the Drexel collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; a beautiful one, embellished with fine painting, owned by Mr. Sypher, of this city; the one given to Nellie Custis by George Washington, now on exhibition at Mount Vernon; and one in New Haven, made by Jacobus Kirkman, London, 1755, and having five octaves. This one was once the property of Napoleon Bonaparte, and is now owned by Mr. M. Steinert.

prototype is the dulcimer, a trapeze-shaped instrument of not more than three feet in greatest width, composed of a wooden framing inclosing a wrest plank for the tuning pins, around which the strings are wound at one end, and a soundboard ornamented with two or more sound holes, and carrying two bridges between which are the lengths of wire intended to vibrate, and a hitchpin block for the attachment of the other end of the strings. Two, three, four and sometimes five strings of fine brass or iron wire are grouped for each note.

The dulcimer, laid upon a table, is struck with hammers-one held in each hand-the heads of which are clothed on one side with hard and the other with soft leather to produce the forte and piano effects. The tone, harsh in the loud playing, is always confused, as there is no damping contrivance to stop the continuance of sounds when not required.

National vanity naturally causes the wish to possess the greatest number of men of genius, and no sooner does anything really useful or novel appear than it is claimed by half a dozen nations or individuals; so it is not surprising that to the invention of the piano there are many claimants.

Until quite recently it was an open question; but chiefly through the efforts of a society in Florence, which had decided to have a celebration on March 7th, 1874, in commemoration of Cristofali, it was proven that he was without doubt the first and independent inventor of the piano.

According to the latest researches, he was born May 4th, 1653, at Padua. Here he attained such high renown as a keyed-instrument manufacturer that Prince Ferdinand of Medici, known as a patron of arts, and especially as a connoisseur of music, induced him to settle in Florence and enter his service as court maker of clavichords, spinets and harpsichords, and also to serve as custodian of his collection of musical instruments.

In the year 1711 it was announced by the celebrated Scipione Maffei, in the "Giornale dei Letterati d'Italia" (Venice), that the invention, hitherto considered impossible, of a "gravecem balo col piano e forte ".had been accomplished, and he continues with the following description: "Signor Bartolomeo Cristofali, of Padua, harpsichord player of the Most Serene Prince of Tuscany, has already made three harpsichords in which the production of more or less sound depends upon the force the player uses in striking upon the keys." After speaking of the opposition with which this new invention met, which he ascribes to musicians condemning it without