Since about 1450, keyboards have virtually remained the same. The organ was the first keyboard instrument and the weight of the keys has varied greatly since the earliest examples, whose keys were so heavy that the players were called “Organ Beaters.”
Virginal
Today’s arrangement was found as long ago as 1361, as demonstrated by paintings of the time. The first member of the harpsichord family was the virginal. The strings on this instrument are plucked by plectra and the shape is similar to that of the clavichord. The spinet followed the clavichord and then came the more elaborate harpsichord.
Tuning often followed the meantone system where major thirds were tuned precisely and other intervals tempered. This created some very wild intervals and the howling sound resulted in them being called “wolves” or the “wolf interval.” If a series of fifths is tuned from the bottom A upwards, when the top A is reached it will be a quarter of a semitone sharp if all are tuned in pure intervals, and this is called the Pythagorean comma.
The spinet could have received its name from a possible Italian inventor, Giovanni Spinette, or from the connection with spine thorns, which were used for plucking the strings.