Clavichord

Anyone who has never strung a spinet, clavichord, or harpsichord cannot imagine what kinds of problems can arise, from the choice of strings, to the actual stretching of the strings until they are tuned.

Tom plays the clavichord.

George Frederick Handel, unquestionably the greatest master of music the world has ever known, was born at Halle, in Upper Saxony, on the 24th of February, 1684. Scarcely could he speak, before he articulated musical sounds; and his father, a physician, then upwards of sixty, having destined him for the law, grieved at the child’s propensity to music, banished from his house all musical instruments. But the immortal spark of genius, which Heaven had kindled in the infant’s bosom, was not to be extinguished by the caprice of a mistaken parent. The child contrived to get a little clavichord into a garret; where, applying himself after the family retired to rest, he soon found means to produce both melody and harmony.

A rickety clavichord gathered dust in a forgotten corner of the drawing room.