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clavier

clavier

1 9.9
A keyboard instrument like a piano or harpsichord
  • noun
  • /klæˈvɪr/
translation icon : clavichordio
  • He played CDs: Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" and the "Goldberg Variations," performed by Glenn Gould, which most suited him.
  • the Well-Tempered Clavier
  • Tempered Clavier
  • play the clavier

Examples

  • We think he started the well tempered Clavier while in jail.

  • Weirich, R. "The View from the Second Floor." Clavier 29, no. 7 (1990): 50.

    Academic text (1993)
  • Playing a clavier.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • This is the E flat major prelude from the first book of The Well Tempered Clavier by Bach and it goes like this.

  • JS Bach wrote a prelude to the first book of his Well tempered Clavier, and it's a famous work.

  • A musical example need not compete with the sonic density of The Well-Tempered Clavier to validate a single principle of harmonic theory.

    Academic text (2010)
  • He picks up a glass of wine that has been resting on the clavier and takes one of the sketches, gazing intently at it.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • And now she's flipping through the pages of magazines, looking at photographs of the royal family and film stars, listening to Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier".

  • My father played the clavier beautifully at the concert last night.

  • Many composers have written works specifically for the clavier, making it an important instrument in classical music.

Synonyms

harpsichord
vsclavier
7 8.4

A keyboard instrument with strings plucked to make a bright sound

is the wider class including instruments with various string actions
clavichord
vsclavier
1 9.9

A small early keyboard instrument with a soft, gentle sound

is the broader category that includes such historical stringed instruments
3.1

A musical machine with keys you press to make notes, like a piano or organ

is narrower in that it emphasizes stringed examples rather than all keyboard types
Klavier
vsclavier
9.5

A keyboard instrument used to play music, like a piano

is the general term covering many stringed keyboard types not just that one
clavecin
vsclavier
  • Archaic
9.9

A keyboard instrument like a piano that makes sound by plucking strings

is the general English term covering that instrument and others

Compounds

9.9

A name someone uses online instead of their real name

How Loud

organ
94 5.3
piano
698 1.0
clavier
1 9.9
harpsichord
7 8.4
clavichord
1 9.9

Surface Forms

clavier singular
claviers plural

Etymology

Clavier comes from French and from the Latin root clavis, which means 'key'. So a clavier is an instrument made of 'keys', like a piano or harpsichord, which is why the word means a keyboard instrument.