Stops (Harpsichord)

STOPS (HARPSICHORD). Like the organ, the harpsichord had stops, by which, with double keyboard, contrasts as well as changes could be made. The principle, borrowed from the organ, was the simple movement of each rack of jacks forming a register, so that the quills of the jacks might or might not touch the strings. The earliest notice of stops to a keyed stringed intrument appears in the Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII., April 1530, published by Sir N. Harris Nicholas...