The Clavemusicum Omnitonum
Description
Built in 2016 by Krebs Cembalobau in collaboration with Studio31. The harpsichord is based on an original instrument by Vito Trasuntino, 1606, currently located at museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica di Bologna.
The instrument is built according to the Italian building tradition. There is one 8'-stop with two rows of jacks. 31 keys per octave, arranged in one single manual. The lower (white) keys are arranged in a conventional diatonic layout. All upper (black) keys are split into four parts. There are two additional keys with two parts each between b and c and between e and f respectively. The keyboard has a range of four octaves, C to c'''.
All strings are made of brass. The casing is of the false inner-outer type made of poplar. The soundboard is made of spruce.
The keyboard can be shifted sideways to make three different reference pitches immediately available. The three positions result in pitches for the key a' of 440Hz, 461Hz and 484Hz. By retuning, the reference pitch can be adjusted up to 490Hz. Usually, the instrument is tuned in 31edo (equal division of the octave in 31 parts). This system is consistent for all keyboard positions, therefore no retuning is necessary. Other tuning systems are easily applicable.
The instrument is easily portable, like a conventional harpsichord. The tuning stability is remarkable, the tuning process takes less than 20 minutes for an experienced tuner.
Photos
Activities
The most recent posts involving the Clavemusicum Omnitonum: