What does clavecin mean?
The clavecin is the French name for the harpsichord, a keyboard instrument that flourished across Europe from the Renaissance through the Baroque era before being largely displaced by the fortepiano. In a clavecin, pressing a key causes a plectrum — traditionally a quill — to pluck a string, producing a bright, silvery, instantly decaying tone quite unlike the sustained swell of a piano. In English usage the word appears mainly in musical scholarship, concert programmes, and titles of French repertoire: composers such as François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau wrote celebrated collections of pieces de clavecin, and the eighteenth-century French builders produced instruments of exceptional elegance and decoration. Because the instrument cannot vary dynamics by touch, players shaped expression through ornaments, articulation, and registration, a practice central to the French clavecin school. Knowing the word signals familiarity with historical performance practice, where ensembles frequently revive the instrument for authentic renditions of Baroque masterworks.
nounA clavecin is a harpsichord, a keyboard instrument in which strings are plucked by quills when keys are pressed. The term is chiefly used in musical and historical contexts to refer to the French tradition of the instrument.
- A harpsichord, especially of the French school; a keyboard instrument whose strings are plucked by quills operated by the keys.
"The ensemble performed Couperin's suites on a restored eighteenth-century clavecin."
"The baroque orchestra tuned quietly while the soloist took her seat at the clavecin."
"Rameau's Pièces de clavecin remain cornerstones of the French keyboard repertoire."
The plural simply adds -s in English; the French plural is identical in spelling.
"The collection houses two eighteenth-century clavecins, both still playable."
Before the piano stole the show, kings and composers alike made music on the clavecin — an instrument whose strings are plucked, not hammered, like a tiny mechanical lark inside a wooden case.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of clavecin
The word clavecin comes from French, which adopted it in the sixteenth century from Italian clavicembalo, itself built on Late Latin clavis meaning 'key' combined with cymbalum, referring to stringed instruments. The shared root clavis also gave English the terms clavier and clavichord, all naming keyboard instruments. In English, clavecin entered primarily through contact with French music and remained a specialist borrowing alongside the more general term harpsichord.
How clavecin is actually used
The word is relatively rare in everyday English, where 'harpsichord' is the standard term; 'clavecin' appears mainly in scholarly writing about French baroque music, in concert programme notes, and on titles of French works such as those by François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau.
Easily confused with clavecin
A clavichord produces sound by striking strings with metal tangents, giving a soft tone, whereas a clavecin (harpsichord) plucks its strings for a brighter sound.