Clavichord actions

Dennis Johnson johnsond@stolaf.edu
Thu, 02 Nov 1995 14:44:56 -0600


At  9:59 AM 11/2/95 -0700, David Porritt wrote:
......... This
>naturally changes the pitch, which raises the question do you tune it so
>it's in tune when the tangent touches the string, or when the key is at
>the bottom.  With this one, there is so much travel after string contact
>that the pitch varries a lot.

___

This and the stability issue are the two reasons why clavichord players
need to learn to tune their own instruments.

In any case, find a touch that seems natural. What pitch is it tuned to? If
it is at least to 415 then that shouldn't be such a problem. The Bebung
does vary profoundly from one Clavichord to another though, and my theory
is that it is directly related to downbearing, the style of bridge pinning,
and tension. The more the strings are fixed to the bridge the greater the
Bebung because you are able to more profoundly change tension on the
speaking length. Many originals were double pinned across the bridge,
"locking" the wire down. Naturally, this helps prevent them from climbing
up on the pins too, but it also compromises the fundamental, IMO. Good
fundamentals have always been a problem on Clavichords, and physicists will
argue that it is impossible to achieve fundamental when the strike and
termination points are the same (a node cannot occur at the strike point).
On mine I choose to enhance whatever fundamental might be there by making a
narrow flat on the bridge top with one pin, almost no downbearing, and
tuned to 415. This minimized the Bebung, but I am convinced that the
overall tone is much cleaner and more focused.

In short, if you find the Bebung undesirable, either raise the pitch,
reduce downbearing, or try to ease the locking down of the bridge pins. I
have also heard of serious string breakage problems at the bridge due to
over locking by the pins. It could also be that the instrument has a bad
scale and is too low in tension.


Dennis Johnson
St. Oalf College





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