JOHN SKELTON, Poet Laureate, who was born at Oxford in 1489, and died in the sanctuary, Westminster, in 1529, was the author of a poem entitled "The Claricorde," from which this quotation is taken. The true spelling is Clavichord, from the Latin "clavis," a key, and "chorda," a string. The wrester was the tuner, who wrested or strained the wire to the required tension. The words "wrest-pin" and "wrest-plank" remain in technical use for the tuning-pin and the wood in which the tuning-pins are inserted.

The Clavichord represented belongs to Mr. Gerald Wellesley, of London: its dimensions are—length, 5 feet 8½ inches; width, 1 foot 9 inches; and depth, 6½ inches; width of the key-board, 2 feet 9½ inches. The compass is five octaves and a semitone—from the third E below, to the third F above, middle C.

Chinese decoration, which was much in vogue in the early part of last century, was not unfrequently applied to clavichords and harpsichords. As examples of the latter may be mentioned the instrument that belonged to Queen Sophia Dorothea, until lately preserved in her palace at Charlottenburg, near Berlin, but now in the Hohenzollern Museum, and the Ruckers clavecin or harpsichord in the Turin Museum. There are two music parties or concerts shown within the lid of Mr. Wellesley's clavichord, with instruments that are not, however, Chinese, but conventional representations of European fiddles and guitars.

The Clavichord is, without question, the earliest key-board stringed instrument, it having been developed from the Monochord, used for teaching singing in monasteries and church schools. It appears to have come into use in the second half of the fourteenth century, but it was not until the beginning of the eighteenth century that it obtained its full development, when, in fact, its expressive character was brought into notice by improvements in the instrument and the finger technique. It was the Bachs who took advantage of this quality as the medium to express a characteristic and tender sentiment. Its gentle, intimate tone is produced by brass pins, called tangents, fixed in the keys and flattened at the upper ends. Raised to the strings in playing, these tangents set the strings in vibration, and at the same time form bridges to measure off the lengths required for the notes. The red cloth, woven in the strings behind the tangents, damps the sound. As far as we have met with the clavichords, the instrument has had two, sometimes three strings of brass wire to each note tuned in unison; the treble being, however, occasionally of steel wire to cause a brighter sound. There were sometimes octave strings to the lowest bass octave, after the manner of some theorboes, to make those notes distinct. These groups of unisons served for two, three, and even four notes according to the point of contact of the tangent affecting them, and to clavichords thus made the Germans applied the word "gebunden" (fretted). About the year 1700 each key obtained its own strings; and the instrument having become larger, it was more powerful and fitted to produce shades of sound of varying intensity. It had the "Bebung" as well, which is analogous to the violin-player's vibrato, and obtained by rocking the finger upon the key without quitting it. The clavichord is the only key-board instrument that allows this effect, but care has to be used to avoid an undue sharpening of the pitch of the note so treated—indeed, a constant equality of touch has to be maintained in playing the clavichord, to preserve an accurate intonation.

One of the most inspired compositions ever written for the clavichord is the "Fantasia Cromatica e Fuga," by Johann Sebastian Bach. The figuration, the manner of slurring, the arpeggios, and much more in this piece, are extremely characteristic of the instrument. For a performance intended to reproduce, as far as may be possible, the original reading, the piece should be first studied upon a clavichord, not a pianoforte. The gentle influence of the instrument soon makes itself felt, and both player and listener seem to breathe another and a purer atmosphere. But such a performance demands concentration and those quiet surroundings the old composers enjoyed.

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