s requiring a key and
tangent of its own, and led to the introduction of the system of tuning
by equal temperament upheld by J.S. Bach. Clavichords were made with
pedals.[2]

The tone of the clavichord, extremely sweet and delicate, was
characterized by a tremulous hesitancy, which formed its great charm
while rendering it suitable only for the private music room or study.
Between 1883 and 1893 renewed attention was drawn to the instrument by
A.J. Hipkins's lectures and recitals on keyboard instruments in London,
Oxford and Cambridge; and Arnold Dolmetsch reintroduced the art of
making clavichords in 1894. (K. S.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The words _clavicorde_, _clavicordo_ and _clavicordio_,
respectively French, Italian and Spanish, were applied to a different
type of instrument, the spinet (q.v.).

[2] See Sebastian Virdung, _Musica getutscht und auszgezogen_ (Basel,
1511) (facsimile reprint Berlin, 1882, edited by R. Eitner); J.
Verschuere Reynvaan, _Musijkaal Kunst-Woordenboek_ (Amsterdam, 1795)
(a very scarce book, of which the British Museum does not possess a
copy); Jacob Adlung, _Musica Mechanica Organoedi_ (Berlin, 1768),
vol. ii. pp. 158-9; A.J. Hipkins, _The History of the Pianoforte_
(London, 1896), pp. 61 and 62.

CLAVICYTHERIUM, a name usually applied to an upright spinet (q.v.), the
soundboard and strings of which were vertical instead of horizontal,
being thus perpendicular to the keyboard; but it would seem that the
clavicytherium proper is distinct from the upright spinet in that its
strings are placed horizontally. In the early clavicytherium there was,
as in the spinet, only one string (of gut) to each key, set in vibration
by means of a small quill or leather plectrum mounted on a jack which
acted as in the spinet and harpsichord (q.v.). The clavicytherium or
keyed cythera or cetra, names which in the 14th and 15th centuries had
been applied somewhat indiscriminately to instruments having strings
stretched over a soundboard and plucked by fingers or plectrum, was
probably of Italian[1] or possibly of south German origin. Sebastian
Virdung,[2] writing early in the 16th century, describes the
clavicytherium as a new invention, having gut strings, and gives an
illustration of it. (See PIANOFORTE.) A certain amount of uncertainty
exists as to its exact construction, due to the extreme rarity of
unrestored specimens extant, and to the almost total absence of