Claviola

Description: Vertical shield-shaped soundbox mounted upright over a mahogany rectangular case holding keyboard and mechanism, the soundbox bolted at its bottom to mahogany brackets above the case; suspended from the brackets in front of the soundbox, a horizontal batten with a wire music rack mounted at its right side; attached below the bracket is a horizontal brass rod from which is hung a wood frame with handle, with a standard violin bow bolted to the frame and moved from side to side by the handle; to the frame and moved from side to side by the handle; 25 wire strings run down the front of the soundbox from small pierced tuning pins in a wood shield at top, over three flat (violin-type?) bridges, over a padded bar, to a brass rod nut and 25 other tuning pins below the soundbox; between the padded bar and nut, each string is grasped in a notch at the end of a lever system connected to the key tails; as a key is depressed, its lever pushes its string forward, off the padded bar, into contact with the bow; the levers are retuned by springs concealed above the keyboard; above the notched levers, three padded "dampers" touch the strings near their midpoints when a lever (absent) at the lower left side of the case is moved; the rightmost damper also moves against its strings when any of the top four keys lifts a connecting rod above the keytails; 29-note G-B keyboard, the highest four keys supposed to activate strings of the octave below as the damper produces octave harmonics in those strings; the notched levers are partly offset so the lowest 13 strings are at the left side, the shortest strings 14-18 are at the right; keys have white celluloid naturals, ebony accidentals; a sliding panel with hinged flap slides over the keyboard, below a nameboard; the soundbox has two elongated F holes on the front, a round hole on the back, the two (pine?) soundboards separated by a thick vertical panel having an opening through which passes a soundpost coupled to both soundboards; for further information see departmental files. (L. Libin, 1980)