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A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed. "Harpsichord" designates the whole family of similar plucked keyboard instruments, including the smaller virginals, muselar, and spinet. The harpsichord was widely used in Renaissance and Baroque music. During the late 18th century, it gradually disappeared from the musical scene with the rise of the piano. But in the 20th century, it made a resurgence, being used in historically informed performance of older music, in new (contemporary) compositions, and in popular culture. ==Mechanism== Harpsichords vary in size and shape, but all have the same basic functional arrangement. The player depresses a key that rocks over a pivot in the middle of its length. The other end of the key lifts a jack (a long strip of wood) that holds a small plectrum (a wedge-shaped piece of quill, nowadays often plastic), which plucks the string. When the player releases the key, the far end returns to its rest position, and the jack falls back. The plectrum, mounted on a tongue that can swivel backwards away from the string, passes the string without plucking it again. As the key reaches its rest position, a felt damper atop the jack stops the string's vibrations. These basic principles are explained in detail below. * The ''keylever'' is a simple pivot, which rocks on a ''balance pin'' that passes through a hole drilled through the keylever. * The ''jack'' is a thin, rectangular piece of wood that sits upright on the end of the keylever. The jacks are held in place by the ''registers''. These are two long strips of wood (the upper movable, the lower fixed), which that run in the gap between pinblock and bellyrail. The registers have rectangular mortises (holes) through which the jacks pass as they can move up and down. The registers hold the jacks in the precise location needed to pluck the string. * In the jack, a ''plectrum'' juts out almost horizontally (normally the plectrum is angled upwards a tiny amount) and passes just under the string. Historically, plectra were made of bird quill or leather; many modern harpsichords have plastic (delrin or celcon) plectra. * When the front of the key is pressed, the back of the key rises, the jack is lifted, and the plectrum plucks the string. *The vertical motion of the jack is then stopped by the ''jackrail'' (also called the ''upper rail''), which is covered with soft felt to muffle the impact. *When the key is released, the jack falls back down under its own weight, and the plectrum passes back under the string. This is made possible by having the plectrum held in a tongue attached with a pivot and a spring to the body of the jack. The bottom surface of the plectrum is cut at a slant; thus when the descending plectrum touches the string from above, the angled lower surface provides enough force to push the tongue backward.〔Kottick (1987, 19)〕 *When the jack arrives in fully lowered position, the felt damper touches the string, causing the note to cease. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Harpsichord」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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