A keyboard stringed instrument combining features of the clavichord and the zither or cittern, a rare historical instrument.
From Medieval Latin 'clavis' (key) combined with 'cithara' or 'cittern' (plucked string instrument). This appears to be a hybrid instrument name from Renaissance music experimentation.
During the Renaissance, instrument makers were obsessed with creating hybrid instruments—combining keyboard mechanisms with different string types—to achieve new sounds, making the clavicithern one of many experimental variations that mostly disappeared from history.
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