During the musical changes that began as the renaissance turned to the baroque period new forms of playing, styles, and instruments began to spring up. One of these instruments is an instrument of only its period. It vaguely resembles the Piano in appearance and in the manor it produces sound, though the sound it produces is far different. The LUTE-HARPSICHORD is an instrument only of its time.
Non of the original instruments have survived the test of time and few of the craftsmen with the skill to make them are known. Fewer then ten Harpsichord makers are known and each craftsmen made only two or three instruments . much of the information on the instruments is linked to Johann Christoph Fleischer of Hamburg, Johann Nicolaus Bach and the organ builder Zacharias Hildebrandt.
The lute-harpsichord was played in a similar what to a piano, but the major difference is that you could not control the sound of which a string made when it was plucked. there was only one volume that was produceda piano uses hammers that strike strings on the inside of the piano when a harpsichord uses a pick. so when a key is pushed a pick plucks a string which produces a sound.
One noticeable quality of the sound the harpsichord produced is that it is some what fancy, which fit in with the era. the fanciness of the era was reflected in the sound the harpsichord. This sound and type of music was only of its time, it is now thought of old or classical.
The use of the harpsicord did not extend in to the classical period for the sound of the piano was prefered over the harpsicord. the volume of the harpsicord could not be controlled. cause the strings were plucked it produced volume, with the piano the volume could be controlled by the pressure applied to the keys.
The is why the instrument for the most part only existed in the baroque period. By the classical period the piano had taken the role were the harpsicord would have been used. And it has earned it self the title of one of the lost arts of music
