104 BULLETIN 136, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ing them, the nyckel harpa being played with a bow. A specimen 

 of this curious instrument (216270) has 21 stopping keys similar 

 to those of a hurdy-gurdy. The instrument is suspended by a 

 ribbon around the player's neck and hangs in such a position that 

 the kej^s fall downward by their own weight. The player presses 

 them upward to secure the desired tones. The bow is of primitive 

 form and has no frog, the player's finger being crowded between 

 the hair and the string for that purpose. 



SOLOPHONE 



The solophone (219990, pi. 47c) is a stringed instrument played 

 with a bow and having 20 keys which press down the strings as a 

 violin player would press them with his fingers. 



INSTRUMENTS WITH KEYBOABD 



CLAVICHORD 



As noted, the hurdy-gurdy was a monochord, its melody string set 

 in vibration by a wheel and divided into vibrating sections by the 

 pressure of little keys or plugs. Some ingenious musician introduced 

 a simple leverage by which one end of a little bar was depressed and 

 the other end correspondingly elevated, and the whole development 

 of keyboard instruments became possible. A little wooden upright 

 like the end of a screw driver was put on the end of the key bar that 

 struck the string, giving more force to the contact. The resultant 

 instrument was called a clavichord (clavis, ke} r ; chorda, string), 

 and had a keyboard producing the tones of about three octaves. By 

 the use of numerous keys it was possible to secure a rather wide 

 range of tones from a smaller number of strings, the little wooden 

 uprights being placed at a different distance from the end on each 

 key bar, and having diagonal connections so arranged that the opera- 

 tion of one key did not interfere with that of another. The strings 

 were stretched between two fixed bridges and the vibrating length 

 was that portion of the string between the fixed bridge nearest the 

 player and the point at which it was stopped. It was stopped by the 

 key lever. Strips of cloth were wound in and out across the ends of 

 the strings nearest the second, or farther, bridge, acting as dampers 

 to that part of the strings. In the early clavichords one string (or 

 set of strings tuned in unison) could be set in vibration b} T two or 

 even more keys with tangents at slightly different points on the key 

 bar. These were called " fretted clavichords." The principal de- 

 velopments were marked by the use of one key for each string (such 

 clavichords being called " unfretted "), and by the use of two strings 

 tuned in unison instead of a single string. In the latter instruments 

 the upright at the end of the key bar was broadened so that it struck 

 both strings at the same time. A model of the instrument is 95790. 



