The Term (divergence of Scholar Opinions)
'Enharmonic keyboard' is a term used by scholars in their studies of enharmonic keyboard instruments (organ, harpsichord, piano, harmonium and synthesizer) with reference to a keyboard with more than 12 keys per octave. Scholarly consensus about the term's precise definition currently has not been established.
In the New Grove Dictionary (2001) Nicolas Meeùs defines "enharmonic keyboard" as "a keyboard with more than 12 keys and sounding more than 12 different pitches in the octave". He however does not specify the origin of the term in his article. Rudolph Rasch (2002) suggested to apply the term "enharmonic keyboard" more closely to keyboards with 29-31 keys per octave. Patrizio Barbieri (2007), in his turn, raised objection that this usage is not supported by early theoretical works. As for historical evidence, confusion has often reigned over the terminology of split-keyed instruments, which were called sometimes 'chromatic', sometimes 'enharmonic'. The builders (or persons who only projected the construction) of such keyboard instruments often gave them names without any reference to genus, like 'archicembalo' (Nicola Vicentino), 'cembalo pentarmonico' (Giovanni Battista Doni), 'Clavicymbalum universale' (Michael Praetorius) or even simply 'Clauocembalo' (that is clavicembalo; Gioseffo Zarlino).
Some modern scholars (Christopher Stembridge, Denzil Wraight) describe instruments with such keyboards as "split-keyed instruments".
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