Germany
German harpsichord makers roughly followed the French model, but with a special interest in achieving a variety of sonorities, perhaps because some of the most eminent German builders were also builders of pipe organs. Some German harpsichords included a choir of 2-foot strings (that is, strings pitched two octaves above the primary set). A few even included a 16-foot stop, pitched an octave below the main 8-foot choirs. One still-preserved German harpsichord even has three manuals to control the many combinations of strings that were available. This represents the northern school of German harpsichord building as featured by builders such as Hieronymus Hass and Christian Zell. The southern school features instruments inspired by Italian harpsichord building: simple large double manual instruments, often undecorated, using brass strings and an Italian construction of the soundboard. These instruments were built by Michael Mietke, Heinrich Gräbner and the Silbermann family. Many modern builders have copied the Mietke instruments and they have proven to be an alternative to the French type harpsichord.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Harpsichord
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—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)
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—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)