Made by Yves Beaupré, in the manner of J.J. Couchet and J. Ruckers; Montreal, Quebec; 1991; black cherry, Sitka spruce, bone, ebony, linden, tempera, brass; length: 193 cm, width of keyboard: 78.7 cm. CMC 91-2.1-2,.6

Although the shape and keyboard of the harpsichord are similar to those of the piano, the two instruments are very different from each other, with vastly different timbres. The strings of the piano are struck whereas those of the harpsichord are plucked. The earliest evidence of a harpsichord-like instrument of this type is from 1397, when a Paduan lawyer wrote that Hermann Poll claimed to have invented the clavicembalum.