ty for a long time proved
insurmountable.

[Illustration: Fig. 68.

SPINET.

(Showing the disposition of the strings, bridges, etc. Dresden,
1590.)]

Two forms of instruments were at length developed, composed of a
wire-strung psaltery, played from a chromatic keyboard like that of
the organ. The first of these was the one called in England Spinet, or
in Italy _Espinnetto_, and in Germany the _Clavier_. The essential
characteristic of this instrument was the manner of producing tones.
Upon the ends of the keys were brass pieces called "tangents," of a
triangular shape, of such form that when the key was pressed, the
tangent pushed the wire and so produced the tone. As it remained in
contact with the wire as long as the key was held down, there was
nothing like what we now call a singing tone. The instruments were
very small, in shape like a square piano, but of three or four octaves
compass; the wires were of brass, and quite small. In several
representations which have come down to us from the seventeenth
century, the number of strings shown is smaller than the number of
keys, from which some writers have inferred that it might have been
possible to obtain more than one tone from the same string, through a
process of stopping it with one tangent and striking it with another.
This, however, is highly improbable; the discrepancies referred to are
undoubtedly due to carelessness of the engraver. The clavier, or
spinet, was a better instrument than the lute, which at length it
superseded, having more tones and a greater harmonic capacity. Besides
which it was a step toward something much better still. In England
they made them with pieces of cloth drawn through between the wires,
to deaden the already small tone still further. These were sometimes
called virginals, and seem to have been used as practice pianos, where
the noise of the full tone might have been objectionable. The oldest
form of the clavier known to the writer was that shown in Fig. 69,
which was so small that it might be carried under the arm, and when
used was placed upon the table. They were sometimes ornamented in a
very elaborate manner.

[Illustration: Fig. 69.

KEYBOARD AND FRET WORK OF SPINET SHOWN IN FIG. 68.]

[Illustration: Fig. 70.

RICHLY ORNAMENTED SPINET.

(Made for the Princess Anna, of Saxony, about 1550.)]

Contemporaneously with the spinet, and of almost equal antiquity, was
an instrument in the form of a grand piano, called