Rocksichord

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The rocksichord is an electronic keyboard invented in the 1960s to approximate the sound of the harpsichord. As its name suggests, it was primarily used in rock music (in the 1960s and 1970s), but it has also been used in jazz (by Call Cobbs, Jr. and Sun Ra) and contemporary classical music (in the work of Terry Riley).

Composer George Crumb specifies the use of an electric harpsichord in his 1968 composition Songs, Drones, and Refrains of Death; though he does not specifically state that it must be a rocksichord, it is likely that this is the instrument he had in mind.

[edit] Artists and groups using rocksichord

• Call Cobbs, Jr.
• Terry Riley (on his 1967 album A Rainbow in Curved Air)
• Stereolab (on their 2001 album Sound-Dust)
• Sun Ra
• Wilco (on their 2004 album A Ghost is Born)
• Quasi

[edit] See also

• Harpsichord