Late Medieval Strung Keyboard Instruments: New Reflections and Attempts at Reconstruction

Abstract

Ample iconographic evidence exists to demonstrate that small strung keyboard instruments were quite common in medieval times. A number of surviving texts either state or imply that one manner of exciting the strings was by striking them with some kind of hammer mechanism. Chief among these sources is Arnaut de Zwolle’s well-known manuscript, which describes a number of different instrument layouts as well three different plucking actions and a simplistic hammered action. Arnaut’s text has provided a great source of inspiration for modern makers wishing to recreate such instruments, due to its relatively high degree of detail. However, precisely because it is the only such source, his solitary vision has also acted as a conceptual straightjacket, essentially discouraging any serious consideration of credible alternatives. The purpose of this study is to explore the territory beyond Arnaut, with the ultimate aim of imagining a new design for a hammered keyboard instrument not based on any one extant source, but nonetheless within the confines of medieval musical instrument making. The primary aspects of such an instrument—the stringing, the action, and the structure—are considered from two different angles: first, in the light of what hints the scant extant information provides about what probably was done; and second, in terms of what would have been possible considering what is known about general medieval mechanical and structural technology and metallurgy. This dual-pronged approach opens up the field to a broader range of possibilities, from among which one particular set of solutions has been chosen for a hypothetical reconstruction.