Swell

SWELL (HARPSICHORD). The desire for a power of increase and decrease on keyboard instruments like the harpsichord and organ, so as to emulate the bow instruments, and even the human voice, in that flow and ebb which are at the foundation of form no less than of expression, has led to the contrivance of mechanical swells as the only possible approach to it. A swell was first attempted on the Organ; the harpsichord swell was introduced by Robert Plenius in a...