famous sight-reading music teacher of the eleventh century, advised his
pupils to "exercise the hand in the use of the monochord," showing his
knowledge of the keyboard. The keyed monochord gained the name
clavichord. Its box-like case was first placed on a table, later on its
own stand, and increased in elegance. Not until the eighteenth century
was each key provided with a separate string.

No unimped triumphal progress can be claimed for the various claviers or
keyboard instruments that came into use. Dance music found in them a
congenial field, thus causing many serious-minded people to regard them
as dangerous tempters to vanity and folly. In the year 1529, Pietro
Bembo, a grave theoretician, wrote to his daughter Helena, at her
convent school: "As to your request to be allowed to learn the clavier,
I answer that you cannot yet, owing to your youth, understand that
playing is only suited for volatile, frivolous women; whereas I desire
you to be the most lovable maiden in the world. Also, it would bring you
but little pleasure or renown if you should play badly; while to play
well you would be obliged to devote ten or twelve years to practice,
without being able to think of anything else. Consider a moment whether
this would become you. If your friends wish you to play in order to give
them pleasure, tell them you do not desire to make yourself ridiculous
in their eyes, and be content with your books and your domestic
occupations."

A different view was entertained in England during Queen Elizabeth's
reign, where claviers were in vogue styled virginals, because, as an
ancient chronicle explained, "virgins do most commonly play on them."
The virginal was usually of oblong shape, often resembling a lady's
workbox. With the Virgin Queen it was a prime favorite, although not
named expressly for her as the flattering fashion of the time led many