Home › Glossary › Letter C

Cembalo

Musical Instrument
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An early term for the harpsichord, a plucked-string keyboard instrument

Detailed Definition
Cembalo appears in poetry to evoke Baroque elegance, intellectual precision, or historical distance; its crisp, articulate tone symbolizes structured emotion and the interplay of reason and artistry, often used in verses that reflect on time, memory, or the formal beauty of past eras.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Baroque poetry, the cembalo (harpsichord) clicks like clockwork governing courtly order; Poets describe its plucked strings as “stars mapped in mathematical grace”; The cembalo appears in satirical verse as the instrument of rigid formality; Its lack of dynamic range becomes a metaphor for emotional restraint in Enlightenment thought; In modern verse, the cembalo’s brittle tone contrasts with romantic piano expressiveness; Poets use the cembalo to explore precision—beauty in calculated sound.
Additional Notes
Cembalo is the Italian term for harpsichord, a plucked-string keyboard with bright, percussive tone; its lack of dynamic control yet intricate articulation suits Baroque complexity—poets may use it to explore constraint, ornamentation, or the tension between mechanism and expression.
Also Known As
Harpsichord
Skip to main content