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The earliest known keyboard instrument was the Ancient Greek hydraulis, a type of pipe organ invented in the third century BC. [2] The keys were likely balanced and could be played with a light touch, as is clear from the reference in a Latin poem by Claudian (late 4th century), who says magna levi detrudens murmura tactu . . . intonet, that is "let him thunder forth as he presses out mighty ...
This was a keyboard instrument played with plectra and activated by electricity, but neither instrument used electricity to produce sound. In 1874, Elisha Gray invented an electric musical instrument called the musical telegraph. It made sound from an electromagnetic circuit's vibration. [6]
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers which are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano , organ , and various electronic keyboards , including synthesizers and digital pianos .
The New Grove musical dictionary summarizes the earliest historical traces of the harpsichord: "The earliest known reference to a harpsichord dates from 1397, when a jurist in Padua wrote that a certain Hermann Poll claimed to have invented an instrument called the 'clavicembalum'; [1] and the earliest known representation of a harpsichord is a sculpture (see below) in an altarpiece of 1425 ...
The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument [1] that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. [2] Historically, it was mostly used as a practice instrument and as an aid to composition, not being loud enough for larger performances. [2]
Piano Grand piano Upright piano Keyboard instrument Hornbostel–Sachs classification 314.122-4-8 (Simple chordophone with keyboard sounded by hammers) Inventor(s) Bartolomeo Cristofori Developed Early 18th century Playing range The Well-Tempered Clavier, first prelude of Book I Played by Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka Problems playing this file? See media help. A piano is a keyboard instrument that ...
The keyboard is placed left of centre, and the strings are plucked at one end, although farther from the bridge than in the harpsichord. This is the more common arrangement for modern instruments, and an instrument described simply as a "virginal" is likely to be a spinet virginals.
Pressing a key on the keyboard makes the instrument produce sounds—either by mechanically striking a string or tine (acoustic and electric piano, clavichord), plucking a string (harpsichord), causing air to flow through a pipe organ, striking a bell , or activating an electronic circuit (synthesizer, digital piano, electronic keyboard).