Clavichord

One string of the course from the side, bridge on the left, hitchpin on the right (heights hugely exaggerated, the vibration more so, in slow motion). The key’s brass tangent holds the string up while it is down: the speaking length runs from the bridge to it, the afterlength beyond is damped by the listing cloth. Let the key go and the whole string rings until the listing stops it.

The last five seconds of the sounding key: how hard the finger presses (aftertouch, the Bebung, the pressure control) and how far that bends the note. The tangent stretches the strings it holds up, so pressing harder is sharper, roughly ½·ΔT/T.

Markers: the partials of the speaking length at the pressure set (brighter: louder at the bridge), the 4′ string’s in blue when it sounds, and the afterlength’s own pitches dimly. The tangent strikes at the very end of the speaking length, so every partial starts at once.

A note holds, quietly, for as long as the key; lines wobble together with the Bebung. On a release the speaking length’s lines stop and the whole string’s flicker for a moment before the listing silences them.