chekkers

  1. Home
  2. top of the aat hierarchies
  3. Objects Facet
  4. Furnishings and Equipment (hierarchy name)
  5. Sound Devices (hierarchy name)
  6. sound devices (equipment)
  7. [sound devices by acoustical characteristics]
  8. chordophones
  9. zitherlike chordophones
  10. zitherlike chordophones: struck
  11. clavichords
  12. chekkers
Scope note
String keyboard instrument mentioned in 14th to early 16th century texts. No accurate description exists of its construction but evidence suggests that it was a type of clavichord. It is said to have looked like an organ, but sounded by strings.The earliest known reference to it is from 1360, when Edward III of England presented one made by Jehan Perrot to John of France. References to the clavichord begin to appear around the middle of the 14th century; and as the harpsichord appeared only after 1390, it is assumed that use of the term 'chekker' indicated a struck string, rather than plucked string keyboard instrument, though documentation remains unclear.
chekkers
Accepted term: 18-Nov-2024