The bowed clavier (', ' or ' in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

) is a

keyboard instrument A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers that are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital piano ...

strung with gut strings, the tone of which is produced by a steadily revolving, well

rosin Rosin (), also known as colophony or Greek pitch (), is a resinous material obtained from pine trees and other plants, mostly conifers. The primary components of rosin are diterpenoids, i.e., C20 carboxylic acids. Rosin consists mainly of r ...

ed cylinder powered by a foot pedal, a mechanism similar to that found in the

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-turned crank, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin (or nyckelharpa) bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar ...

. The ' was illustrated and described by

Michael Praetorius Michael Praetorius (probably 28 September 1571 – 15 February 1621) was a German composer, organist, and Music theory, music theorist. He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of ...

in his treatise on musical instruments '' Syntagma Musicum'' II, in the section ''De Organograhia'', published 1614–20 in Germany. It was re-invented by Joh. Hohlfeld of

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

in 1751. This instrument and another one of his inventions, a device that recorded keyboard improvisations in real time, were mentioned in the " Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments" by C. P. E. Bach. Another version was the klawiolin, designed by the Polish musician and painter Jan Jarmusiewicz (1781–1844). It was a hump-backed piano with gut strings and a mechanism controlling small bows which could imitate a string quartet.

References

"Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments", Section Two, W. W. Norton & Company (November 1948)
Hurdy-gurdies Keyboard instruments German inventions German music history Early musical instruments {{Zither-instrument-stub

See also

References