Also 6 sownd-borde, sownde-bord, 7 sound-boord. [SOUND sb.3]
1. A thin board or piece of wood forming part of a musical instrument and placed in such a position as to strengthen or increase its sound.
15[?]. Proverbis, in Antiq. Rep. (1809), IV. 406. But whoso in that instrumente [sc. the harp] hathe no speculacion, What restithe withyn the sownde-bord hath but smale relacion.
1504. in Herrig’s Archiv, CXX. 425. Of þe monacorde … I assayde þe musykes … but none wold speke; þe sownd-borde was to hy.
1611. Cotgr., Trembloer, the Sound-boord of a Musicall Instrument.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 222. You may try it, without any Sound-board along, but onely Harp-wise, at one end of the strings.
1838. G. F. Graham, The. & Pract. Mus. Comp., Introd. p. v. In both of these harps the sound-board seems to have been large and sonorous.
1874. Tyndall, Fragm. Sci. (1879), II. xi. 244. All are … shaken forth into the air by a second sound board [in a piano].
attrib. 1889. Brinsmead, Hist. Pianoforte, 171. Materially elongating the sound-board bridges.
2. a. In an organ (see quot. 1881).
1611. Cotgr., Canon,… the sound-boord of an Organ.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 709. As in an Organ from one blast of wind To many a row of Pipes the sound-board breaths.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xxii. 320. The Manner of fastning the Organ-Tongue to its Mortise, is by Parchment and Leather glu’d to its Surface, and also to the Sound-Board.
1781. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 2), VIII. 5747. The sound-board … is composed of two parts, the upper board or cover H H H, and the under board H I.
1852. Seidel, Organ, 47. The great sound-board and wind-chest are of equal length.
1881. W. E. Dickson, Pract. Organ-building, iii. 29. The sound-board is a shallow box, divided internally into as many transverse grooves or channels as there are notes on the key-board.
b. In a harmonium (see quot.).
1879. Grove’s Dict. Music, I. 668/1. Above the bellows-board is the ‘pan.’.., sometimes erroneously called the soundboard, a board of graduated thickness in which are the channels … determining … the different timbres.
3. = SOUNDING-BOARD 1.
1766. Entick, London, IV. 278. The sound-board is pendant from the roof of the church.
1842. Gwilt, Archit., Gloss., Sound-board, the same as a canopy or type over a pulpit, to reverberate the voice of the speaker.
transf. 1856. Lever, Martins of Cro’ M., 165. These thin partitions are only soundboards for the voice.
4. Sound-boarding.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2247/2.
