Note 158 — Chapter XV · JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

The clavichord was suitable only for the most intimate sort of music. It differed from the harpsichord in that the tone of it was produced not by a plucking of the strings but by a pressure brought to bear on them by little uprights attached to the key levers. The tone was very slender but sweet and within its limitations capable of fine shading. A varying pressure of the key produced that tremolo which on the violin is called vibrato, and gave the tone a delicate warmth wholly lacking in the clean-cut, frosty tone of the harpsichord—and, indeed, in the rich tone of the pianoforte.