[CAUT] clavichord

[Laurence Libin]

Sure. There's a 1763 Kinzing clav with divided pantalon stop at the Met 
Museum along with any number of damperless square pianos and early squares 
with damper lifters--not necessarily crude by any means. It's a mistake to 
think of early pianos as crude; some are highly sophisticated instruments by 
any standard, starting with Cristofori's.
BTW the pantalon tangets maintain strong, not barely positive contact. If 
you're interested, there's an active clavichord list you can join on Yahoo.
Laurence

 ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Sturm" <fssturm at unm.edu>
To: "College & University Technicians" <caut at ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, February 11, 2011 3:47 PM
Subject: Re: [CAUT] clavichord


> On Feb 11, 2011, at 12:35 PM, Laurence Libin wrote:
>
>>  The pantalon tangents, affixed to a hinged rail below the keyboard, 
>> rise between the key levers and touch the strings slightly to the  left 
>> (usually) of the striking tangents. Therefore pitch drops very  slightly 
>> when the striking tangent descends, allowing the strings  again to 
>> contact the pantalon tangent. Importantly, when in  operation all the 
>> pantalon tangents (or bass and treble if the rail  is so divided) touch 
>> the strings all the time except when strings  are lifted by the striking 
>> tangents, hence all the strings vibrate  sympathetically with the played 
>> notes.
>
>
> Fascinating! So that stop puts its tangents into just barely positive 
> contact with the strings, meaning that while it is engaged the strings 
> are all undamped, giving the true, though muted, pantalon sound.
> I understand there were also crude small square pianos with a  pantalon 
> stop, just lifting all the dampers; and some without dampers  to begin 
> with, essentially a keyboard activated pantalon. Both upward  and downward 
> striking. (For those who don't know, the pantalon was a  hammered 
> dulcimer, played with hand-held hammers, without damping.  Named after 
> Pantaleon Hebenstreit, a famous virtuoso). Are examples of  such 
> instruments still extant? Of the clavichord with the pantalon stop?
> Regards,
> Fred Sturm
> fssturm at unm.edu
> http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/FredSturm
>