Stops were added, as in the
organ, that varied effects might be produced, and a second keyboard was
often placed above the first. The case was either rectangular, or
followed the outlines of the harp, a progenitor of this clavier type. It
was often highly ornamented, and handsomely mounted. Each string from
the first had its due length and was tuned to its proper note.
The secular music principle of the sixteenth century that called into
active being the orchestra led also to a desire for richer musical
expression in home and social life than the fashionable lute afforded,
and the clavier advanced in favor. In France, by 1530, the dance, that
promoter of pure instrumental music, was freely transcribed for the
clavier. Little more than a century later, Jean Baptiste Lully
(1633-1687) extensively employed the instrument in the orchestration of
his operas, and wrote solo dances for it.
Francois Couperin (1668-1733), now well-nigh forgotten, although once
mentioned in the same breath with Moliere, wrote the pioneer clavier
instruction book.
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