Bach on the clavichord

Chances are you've never heard this instrument. It's called a clavichord.

During the Baroque and Classical eras (roughly: 1600s through early 1800s), the clavichord was the most popular home keyboard instrument. Early instances of the instrument go back to the 14th century. It has at least three advantages over the harpsichord. It's very quiet, and therefore didn't disturb the rest of the household; it is small in scale, and therefore less expensive; and it has expressive capabilities (in dynamics and even vibrato[!]) that the harpsichord lacked. It's also, as you can hear in the above video, a very beautiful sounding instrument, easy on the ears, sweet and mellow.

Clavichords found home in the houses of amateur musicians and professionals alike. The clavichord didn't really die out as a common household instrument until the 19th century, by which time composers were writing music that, in range, difficulty, and dynamics, was more suited to the burgeoning piano than its lighter weight forebears. JS Bach's household had several, and it's likely that it was the instrument he and his family most often played at home. Most of Bach's non-organ keyboard music works very well on the instrument. Some doesn't. For example, you wouldn't want to play the Goldberg variations on a clavichord.



The clavichord strikes its strings rather than plucking them (as the harpsichord does). And unlike the piano, there is no escapement in its hammers, which on a clavichord are called tangents. The tangent is responsible both for sounding the string and dividing it so that it sounds at a certain pitch (actually, the pitch on the instrument is not so "certain", but that's another story). Once the key is released, the string is dampened (stopped from vibrating). Note that this is different from a piano's action, where an escapement immediately removes the hammer from the string once the hammer has struck. Because the tangent remains in contact with the string, this actually allows you to apply a modest amount of vibrato to a note by worrying the key back and forth slightly!

Clavichords are sold today. In fact, it's probably fair to say that more clavichords are sold today than have ever been sold in history. In general, they're quite expensive, though you can considerably reduce cost by buying them in kit form, of various degrees of completion.

This instrument



This is a rather poor picture of the actual instrument played in the above video. The man in the above video was kind enough to inform me that this clavichord was built by Dick Verwolf in the Netherlands in imitation of one built by Stein circa 1750 (the year of Bach's death). An original Stein survives at the Municipal Museum in The Hague. The keyboard ranges from the C (do) below middle C to the C three octaves above middle C. As of this writing, one can be purchased for US$4,140. A bargain. Who knows what it would cost to ship such a delicate instrument.

The music

This is the adagio from JS Bach's e minor keyboard toccata. It's in a fantasia style. That is to say, it's improvisatory...this is probably very much how Bach sounded as he sat before a clavichord in his own home and improvised. It is beautifully played here by Joris Weimar. I picked this video out of one or two dozen sampled because, though the video quality is low, it showed the best sounding instrument and the one that I think best demonstrates the clavichord's charms. Hope you enjoy it.