Split keys

Split keys (Fr.: touches brisées; Ger.: gebrochene Tasten; It. : tasti spezzati), the division of accidental keys into front and rear sections and their connection to organ pipes of different pitches was resorted to from the mid-15th c. on, in the interest of intonation. Later split keys were also applied to stringed keyboard instrs. for the same reason. Splitting the G♯ and E♭ keys was the most common way of eliminating the “wolf” of nonequal temperament. If the pitch of the E♭ keys were not…