Archicembalo
Encyclopedia
Nicola Vicentino
Nicola Vicentino was an Italian music theorist and composer of the Renaissance. He was one of the most visionary musicians of the age, inventing, among other things, a microtonal keyboard, and devising a practical system of chromatic writing two hundred years before the rise of equal...
in 1555. This was a harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
built with many extra keys and strings, enabling experimentation in microtonality and just intonation
Just intonation
In music, just intonation is any musical tuning in which the frequencies of notes are related by ratios of small whole numbers. Any interval tuned in this way is called a just interval. The two notes in any just interval are members of the same harmonic series...
.
Construction
The Archicembalo had two manuals, but unlike those on a normal harpsichord these two keyboards were used to provide extra pitches rather than a timbralTimbre
In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, such as string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the...
difference. Both manuals contained all of the usual white and black keys, but in addition each black key was divided into two parts so that a distinction could be made between a sharp
Sharp (music)
In music, sharp, dièse , or diesis means higher in pitch and the sharp symbol raises a note by a half tone. Intonation may be flat, sharp, or both, successively or simultaneously...
or flat note. The lower manual also included black keys between B and C, and between E and F. In total there were 36 keys available in any octave, each of which could be tuned to a different pitch. (manual diagram)
Tuning
There were two systems of tuning the Archicembalo considered by Vicentino:- The most important was the extended quarter-comma meantone temperamentMeantone temperamentMeantone temperament is a musical temperament, which is a system of musical tuning. In general, a meantone is constructed the same way as Pythagorean tuning, as a stack of perfect fifths, but in meantone, each fifth is narrow compared to the ratio 27/12:1 in 12 equal temperament, the opposite of...
, which given such a wide gamut of fifths becomes almost exactly a system of 31 equal divisions of the octave (see: 31 equal temperament31 equal temperamentIn music, 31 equal temperament, 31-ET, which can also be abbreviated 31-TET, 31-EDO , , is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 31 equal-sized steps...
). This arises because after a cycle of 31 quarter-comma-tempered fifths, the 32nd pitch will be remarkably close to a pitch already existing in the system; thus five of Vicentino's 36 possibilities became practically redundant in this system. He suggested that these five be tuned instead according to the second manner described below. - Vicentino offered an alternative tuning in which the upper keyboard was tuned a quarter-comma higher than the lower, allowing pure fifths by playing chords across the manuals, giving a limited system of triadic just intonationJust intonationIn music, just intonation is any musical tuning in which the frequencies of notes are related by ratios of small whole numbers. Any interval tuned in this way is called a just interval. The two notes in any just interval are members of the same harmonic series...
. This tuning still permits modulationModulation (music)In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature. Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest...
to a wide range of keys, but not in a completely circular fashion as with the first tuning described above, and still only modulates by the meantone-tempered fifth, not by the pure fifth.
Uses
Vicentino used his Archicembalo to test his own theories of tuning, and realize the more obscure ancient Greek genera which had been neglected for centuries. In addition to his experiments, he found it very helpful for accompaniment of vocalists and instrumental players, as it was capable of coping with the subtle intonational differences inherent in musical practice in a way that no keyboard instrument had before.For composers of the time, the Archicembalo made total modulatory
Modulation (music)
In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature. Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest...
freedom a possibility without sacrificing the purity of meantone temperament's just thirds as with 12-tone equal temperament
Equal temperament
An equal temperament is a musical temperament, or a system of tuning, in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identical frequency ratio. As pitch is perceived roughly as the logarithm of frequency, this means that the perceived "distance" from every note to its nearest neighbor is the same for...
. This was exploited by those who learned to play it, such as Luzzasco Luzzaschi
Luzzasco Luzzaschi
Luzzasco Luzzaschi was an Italian composer, organist, and teacher of the late Renaissance. He was born and died in Ferrara, and despite evidence of travels to Rome it is assumed that Luzzaschi spent the majority of his life in his native city.As a pupil of Cipriano de Rore, Luzzaschi developed...
. Contemporary composers had been writing vocal music in a very chromatic style for some time, but it was instruments such as the Archicembalo that permitted them to explore the instrumental possibilities of chromaticism with a purity of intonation.
Spelling and pronunciation
Vicentino named his instrument the arcicembalo , but in English texts it is more often spelt archicembalo (icon), possibly confused with similarly spelled words having Greek origin, such as architectArchitect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
.
Surviving archicembali
Only one keyboard instrument using his 31-note-to-the-octave system survives from the Renaissance: the ‘Clavemusicum Omnitonum Modulis Diatonicis Cromaticis et Enearmonicis', built by Vito Trasuntino of Venice in 1606 to play the diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic modi. It is on display at the International museum and library of musicInternational museum and library of music
-History:The Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale, founded in 1959 to hold the Comune di Bologna’s collection of musical objects, was renamed International Museum and Library of Music in 2004 with the opening of the museum’s site, the Palazzo Sanguinetti, in the historic center of Bologna...
in Bologna.
External links
- Lower manual plan. Casimiri II 173 foldout music 28 NB.23. Alternate Exhibit Objects. Library of Congress Vatican Exhibit
- The Archicembalo of Nicola Vincentino (pdf - 2.4mb) Marco Tiella. The English Harpsichord vol.1, nr. 5 (1975)
- Musical Experience gained through Working with the Archicembalo Reconstruction (pdf - 1.5mb) Marco Tiella. International Conference in Musicology, Kraków (2003)
- Margo Schulter on Vicentino's keyboards
- Clavemunicum omnitonum modulis diatonicis cromaticis et enearmonicis (Vito Trasuntino - 1609) on display at the International museum and library of musicInternational museum and library of music-History:The Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale, founded in 1959 to hold the Comune di Bologna’s collection of musical objects, was renamed International Museum and Library of Music in 2004 with the opening of the museum’s site, the Palazzo Sanguinetti, in the historic center of Bologna...
of Bologna