Bowed clavier
The String Piano ( also bow wings, violin factory or Geigenklavizimbel ) is a chordophone that is played by means of a keyboard. Unlike the pianoforte the strings are not struck, but deleted.
The design allows full grip polyphonic music, a control of the duration and volume curve and, depending on the design, even the intonation of each individual sound.
String Pianos have been proven since the 15th century and into the 20th century resulted in a multitude of different structures.
The strings are usually removed by means of smeared rosin wheels, belts or cylinders and thus vibrated. The strings are attached sorted by pitch over a sound box. The body shape often corresponds to the wing shape.
History
Even Leonardo da Vinci's drawings have been preserved to a string piano.
Through the publication Syntagma Musicum of Michael Praetorius won Hans Heydens Nürnbergisch violin works ( Geigenklavizimbel ) from Nürnberg (1575 ) special attention. In this instrument, the string connected via a hook is run against a wheel by pressing a button. Since there is no pressure point, the strings intone depending on the keystroke. To emphasize the large number of strings, there are several side by side wheels, which several strings are assigned. The violin business is operated by two people. A person has to deal with a crank the wheels in motion, the other plays on the keys. In Brussels Musical Instrument Museum (MIM ) is an early violin works of the Spaniard Fray Raymundo Truchado from 1625.
Georg DC man, organist in Ilmenau, 1709 constructed a similar instrument with some improvements and called it the piano viola da gamba. 1741 was followed by Le Voirs also in Paris with a piano viola da gamba, 1754 Hohlfeld of Berlin with the bow piano, the opposite Heydens instrument had the advantage that the wheels were covered with horse hair. An improvement of the arch piano tried Garbrecht 1790 together with Andreas Wasianski Glory to God in Königsberg in 1795 was followed by Mayer in Görlitz with his bow wings, the 1799 Kunze in Prague designed useful. 1801 constructed Hübner be clavecin harmonique ( juke ) and 1797 Karl Leopold Röllig in Vienna with the Xänorphica the most complicated instrument of this kind, which set for each key string and a special bow in motion.
Of all these instruments it can neither put out about the reputation of a Kuriosums. A combination of the bow wing with an ordinary piano was Karl Greiner's bow fortepiano from 1779.
Playable and functional replicas of a String own piano and a violin work are located in the Instrument Museum in Lißberg ( Ortenberg ). The replicas were made by Kurt Reichmann according to the original product design da Vinci.
Nyckelharpa
The nyckelharpa ( nyckelharpa ) represents an intermediate form of violin and string piano dar.