Dulcimer
|
The Hammered Dulcimer is the earliest predecessor of a Piano and is a stringed instrument. It is a wooden box with strings stretched over it that are struck with small mallets; the number of strings may vary. The popularity of the dulcimer continued in Western Europe until the 17th century [11].
This instrument is different to the Harpsichord in the sense that when the player varies their touch on the Dulcimer, they can vary the volume and duration of the tone. This expressive quality is shared with the Clavichord. |
Bartolomeo Cristofori decided in the late 1600s to try to adapt the idea of the Hammered Dulcimer to the chromatic keyboard design [12]. Cristofori recognised that applying the hammer concept from the Dulcimer could open the way to a great range of volume and tone. He worked on making a sophisticated key assembly that could handle the varied actions of swinging a hammer at the strings. Now, instead of the moving two hammers around on a diatonic (do-re-mi) pattern of notes, the player is able to use all ten fingers to press keys that swings hammers that are already oriented in front of their chromatic notes.