clavicytherium

[klav-uh-sahy-theer-ee-uhm]

noun

plural

clavicytheria 

1. an upright harpsichord.

Word History and Origins

Origin of clavicytherium¹

1505–15; clavi- < Medieval Latin clāvis key + cytherium, for Latin citara kithara

Example Sentences

The vibrating strings of the clavicytherium in the Kraus Museum are stretched horizontally over two kinds of psalteries fixed one over the other.

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For the history of the clavicytherium considered as a forerunner of the pianoforte see Pianoforte.

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The clavicytherium or keyed 469 cythera or cetra, names which in the 14th and 15th centuries had been applied somewhat indiscriminately to instruments having strings stretched over a soundboard and plucked by fingers or plectrum, was probably of Italian1 or possibly of south German origin.

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Sebastian Virdung,2 writing early in the 16th century, describes the clavicytherium as a new invention, having gut strings, and gives an illustration of it.

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The arrangement of this mechanism is the distinctive feature of the clavicytherium, for the wires, unlike the strings of the upright spinet, increase in length from left to right, so that the upright harp-shaped back has its higher side over the treble of the keyboard instead of over the bass.

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