Baroque gebundenes Clavichord, fretted clavichord

Baroque gebundenes Clavichord, fretted clavichord. From Southern Germany, around 1770. Displayed in the BachHaus Museum, Eisenach. A European stringed keyboard instrument mostly used as a practice instrument and as an aid to composition, not being loud enough for larger performances. The clavichord produces sound by striking brass or iron strings with small metal blades called tangents. Since the string vibrates from the bridge only as far as the tangent, multiple keys with multiple tangents can be assigned to the same string. This is called fretting. Early clavichords frequently had many notes played on each string: most clavichords were triple- or double-fretted. Johann Sebastian Bach would have played on such an instrument.