clavichord

[Greg Granoff]

Alan,

Clavichords are supposed to have that "flexible" pitch ability.  To a
pianist, this seems an unfortunate weakness, while to someone up on what
makes a clavichord a clavichord, this is one of its greatest strengths.  The
people of J.S. Bach's day --the German musicians especially-- loved their
clavichords because that gave them the ability to produce vibrato here and
there as a coloring tool.  This effect the Germans called "bebung", and was
prized as giving the instrument an expressive, emotional quality that
trumped the inflexible harpsichord completely, despite the latter's superior
volume.  Later, CPE Bach and his contemporaries never tired of singing the
instruments praises for the same reason.  As to tuning, you have to strive
for a stroke strength that avoids any bending and tune it that way.  It
takes a little playing around, but it can be done.  The keys do not bottom
out on a punching, because the tangent must stay in very positive contact
with the string to maintain a pitch (or to bend it :-))  Good luck!
Greg
HSU
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan McCoy" <amccoy@mail.ewu.edu>
To: <johnsond@stolaf.edu>; "College and University Technicians"
<caut@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2003 9:48 AM
Subject: RE: clavichord


> Dennis,
>
> Are the keys supposed to bottom out onto a key punching or something? The
> keys on this one don't have a bottom, so it is just a springy feeling.
> Because the pitch is dependent on keystroke, it is bending all the time.
So
> where in the keystroke do you tune?
>
> As you can see, I am fairly clueless about these beasts. Perhaps because
> this is only one of two that I have seen and I have seen nothing in print
> about the technical aspects of them.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Alan
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org]On Behalf Of
> > Dennis Johnson
> > Sent: Monday, April 28, 2003 9:29 AM
> > To: College and University Technicians
> > Subject: Re: clavichord
> >
> >
> > They are pretty straight forward.  I built and have a large
> > one at home, which is what I prefer to play.  You won't find
> > anything in piano supply houses.  The tuning process is
> > obviously different depending on fretted or unfretted.
> > There are preferences either way, but I much prefer the
> > flexibility of unfretted.  It helps greatly for the tangents
> > to be thinned and buffed clean. Not too sharp or too flat.
> > Small adjustments can be made by bending but you like them
> > to hit square, not unlike piano hammers.  There are a lot of
> > junk clavichords too (like anything else) so evaluate the
> > merits and potential before making promises.
> >
> > Dennis Johnson
> > St. Olaf College
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > caut list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
> >
>
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