HARPSICHORD, a large keyboard instrument, belonging to the same family as the virginal and spinet, but having two, three or even four strings to each note, and a case of the harp or wing shape, afterwards adopted for the grand pianoforte. J. S. Bach's harpsichord, preserved in the museum of the Hochschule fur Musik at Charlottenburg, has two manuals and four strings to each note, one i6ft., two 8ft. and one 4ft. By means of stops the performer has within his power a number of combinations for varying the tone and dynamic power. In all instruments of the harpsichord family the strings, instead of being struck by tangents as in the clavichord, or by hammers as in the pianoforte, are plucked by means of a quill firmly embedded in the centred tongue of a jack or upright placed on the back end of the key lever. This plucking of the string produces the incisive tone pe culiar to the harpsichord family. What these instruments gain in brilliancy of tone, however, they lose in power of expression and of accent. For fuller discussion of the harpsichord and its congeners see PIANOFORTE.