Why do harpsichords have two keyboards

The brothers separated in c. Ioannes married Maria Walrant in and had three daughters but no male heirs. When his wife died in he took on his nephew Ioannes Couchet to continue the instrument building business. In addition to keyboard instrument building he tuned several church organs in Antwerp including the Cathedral organ. Technical description: Double-manual transposing Flemish harpsichord. Decoration: Fine lid painting of a landscape with figures.

The printed papers above the keys, around the soundboard and across the jackrail are original. The original rose is lost and its replacement appears to be Italian. The original keyboards have survived: natural keyplates bone, accidental keyplates bog oak. Repair History: Neither the outer case decoration nor the stand are original. Spence, Florence, before Single-manual harpsichord. Triple-manual harpsichord. Double-manual harpsichord.

This allows for the musician to alternate manuals for immediate dynamic contrast. Additionally, the bottom manual can have an additional 4' stop that employs a set strings tuned an octave higher for added weight and volume. In this fashion the lower manual is more powerful and the upper manual is used for softer passages. Finally, both manuals may be coupled together. When the top manual is physically shifted toward the backboard, the result is that the bottom manual will operate both manuals and their set stops simultaneously but the top manual will only operate itself.

This allows for the greatest possible volume the instrument can produce - the 8' back gate, 4' choir, and the coupled 8' front gate of the top manual. A number of harpsichords may be equipped with a stop then when pulled places a strip of leather against strings. This muted sound very much resembles that of a lute or nylon strung guitar and as such is called a lute stop.

It only affects the back gate on single manual instruments but on double manual instruments it only works for the top manual.

The bottom manual may feature a peau de bouffle stop, which when employed plucks the strings with leather quills instead of the more modern plastic plectrums. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Arts How many sets of keys does a harpsichord have? Ben Davis January 27, How many sets of keys does a harpsichord have? Why do harpsichords have two sets of keys? Does a harpsichord have keys?