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The term color organ refers to a tradition of mechanical devices built to represent sound and accompany music in a visual medium. The earliest created color organs were manual instruments based on the harpsichord design. By the 1900s they were electromechanical. In the early 20th century, a silent color organ tradition (Lumia) developed.
Some harpsichords may have a buff stop, which brings a strip of buff leather or other material in contact with the strings, muting their sound to simulate the sound of a plucked lute. [ 1 ] The term denotes the whole family of similar plucked-keyboard instruments, including the smaller virginals , muselar , and spinet .
Josef Tal wrote Concerto for harpsichord & electronic music (1964), Three Compositions for recorder & harpsichord (1966) and Chamber Music (1982) for s-recorder, marimba & harpsichord. Both Dmitri Shostakovich (Hamlet, 1964) and Alfred Schnittke (Symphony No.8, 1994) wrote works that use the harpsichord as part of the orchestral texture.
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).
Viola organista (Codex Atlanticus, 1488–1489)The viola organista is a musical instrument designed by Leonardo da Vinci.It uses a friction belt to vibrate individual strings (similar to how a violin produces sounds), with the strings selected by pressing keys on a keyboard (similar to an organ).
Musical Instruments and Their Decoration. Cincinnati, Ohio: Seven Hills Books,. ISBN 0-911403-17-5. Russell, Raymond (1973). The Harpsichord and Clavichord: An Introductory Study, 2nd ed. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-04795-5. Yorke, James (1986). Keyboard Instruments at the Victoria and Albert Museum. London Victoria and Albert Museum.
Spinet by Zenti from 1637, now in the Musical Instrument Museum in Brussels. The angling of the strings also had consequences for tone quality: generally, it was not possible to make the plucking points as close to the nut as in a regular harpsichord. Thus spinets normally had a slightly different tone quality, with fewer higher harmonics ...
Throughout the Baroque era, the harpsichord was one of the main instruments used in chamber music. The harpsichord used quills to pluck strings, and it had a delicate sound. Due to the design of the harpsichord, the attack or weight with which the performer played the keyboard did not change the volume or tone.