Furniture of the Olden Time

by Frances Clary Morse

That the harpsichord was not an uncommon instrument in this country during the latter half of the eighteenth century is shown by the number of advertisements of the harpsichord and its teachers.

Illustration [284] shows a clavichord or clavier, made about 1745. It is owned by Mr. John Orth of Boston. The clavichord, like its successor, the square piano, was of oblong shape. The musical tone was produced in a different manner from that of either the spinet or piano. Each key had at the back an upright “tangent” or wedge-shaped piece of brass, which, as the front of the key was depressed, rose and set the string of twisted brass wire in vibration, by pressing upon it, instead of picking it like the quill of the spinet and harpsichord. This pressure divided the string into two different lengths, the shorter length being prevented from vibrating by a band of cloth interlaced with the strings. The same interlaced cloth stopped the vibration of the longer division of the string, as soon as the pressure was taken from the key, thus allowing the tangent to fall. In the earlier clavichords one string had to serve to produce the tone for two or three different keys.

Illus. 284.—Clavichord, 1745.

These instruments were called “gebunden,” or fretted. Later instruments are “bund frei” or free, having a string for each key. The clavichord player could feel the elasticity of the wire string, and could produce a sort of vibration of tone by employing the same method as that used in playing the violin, a pressure and vibration of the fleshy end of the finger while the note was held. The tone of the clavichord was very delicate, and it afforded far more power of expression than the spinet or harpsichord, which, however, were more brilliant, and entirely superseded the weaker clavichord in England. In Germany the clavichord has always been a favorite instrument even into the nineteenth century. It is probable that but few clavichords came to this country.

The piano e forte—soft and loud—was invented about 1720. The strings of the piano are struck by hammers instead of being picked by quills, and the force of the hammer strokes made a stronger frame necessary than that of the spinet or harpsichord, in order to hold the heavier strings.

Brissot de Warville wrote in 1788 that in Boston “one sometimes hears the forte piano, though the art is in its infancy.” He then soulfully bursts forth, “God grant that the Bostonian women may never, like those of France, acquire the malady of perfection in this art. It is never attained but at the expense of the domestic virtues.” According to this the domestic virtues must be a scarce quality in Boston at the present time.

In 1792 Messrs. Dodd & Claus, musical instrument manufacturers, 66 Queen Street, New York, announced that “the forte piano is become so fashionable in Europe that few polite families are without it.” As this country kept pace with Europe in the fashions, we can assume that the forte piano formed at the close of the eighteenth century a part of the furniture of the polite families of the United States.

The date of a piano can be approximately determined by its legs. The earliest pianos had four slender legs similar to the legs of the spinet or harpsichord. The next instruments had six legs, increased in size and fluted or carved. Then the number was reduced to four, and the legs were still larger, and more elaborately carved, until 1840 the ugly legs found commonly upon the square piano were the only styles employed.