Name	Clavichord
Names	it: Clavicordo
Image capt	1977 clavichord by Keith Hill, op. 44 (opus 28 reworked)
Background	keyboard
Hornbostel sachs	314.122-4-8
Hornbostel sachs desc	Simple chordophone with keyboard sounded by tangents
Developed	Early 14th century
Articles	}}

The clavichord is a European stringed keyboard instrument known from the late Medieval, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was widely used as a practice instrument and as an aid to composition, not being loud enough for larger performances. The clavichord produces sound by striking brass or iron strings with small metal blades called tangents. Vibrations are transmitted through the bridge(s) to the soundboard. The name is derived from the Latin word ''clavis'', meaning "key" (associated with more common ''clavus'', meaning "nail, rod, etc.") and ''chorda'' (from Greek χορδή) meaning "string, especially of a musical instrument".

From John Mainwaring's biography of Handel:

History and use

The clavichord was invented in the early fourteenth century. In 1504, the German poem Der Minne Regeln mentions the terms clavicimbalum (a term used mainly for the harpsichord) and clavichordium, designating them as the best instruments to accompany melodies. thumb|right|The "Lépante" clavichord, Musée de la Musique, Paris One of the earliest references to the clavichord in England occurs in the privy-purse expenses of Elizabeth of York, queen of Henry VII, in an entry dated August 1502: :'' Item. The same day, Hugh Denys for money by him delivered to a stranger that gave the queen a payre of clavycordes. In crowns form his reward iiii libres.'' It was very popular from the 16th century to the 18th century, but mainly flourished in German-speaking lands, Scandinavia, and the Iberian Peninsula in the latter part of this period. It had fallen out of use by 1850. In the late 1890s, Arnold Dolmetsch revived clavichord construction and Violet Gordon-Woodhouse, among others, helped to popularize the instrument. Although most of the instruments built before the 1730s were small (four octaves, four feet long), the latest instruments were built up to seven feet long with a six octave range.

Today clavichords are played primarily by Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical music enthusiasts. They attract many interested buyers, and are manufactured worldwide. There are now numerous clavichord societies around the world, and some 400 recordings of the instrument have been made in the past 70 years. Leading modern exponents of the instrument include Derek Adlam, Christopher Hogwood, Richard Troeger, and Miklos Spányi, and fine modern instruments are widely available.

Modern music

The clavichord has also gained attention in other genres of music, in the form of the clavinet, which is essentially an electric clavichord which uses a magnetic pickup to provide a signal for amplification. Stevie Wonder uses a clavinet in many of his songs, such as "Superstition" and "Higher Ground". A clavinet played through an instrument amplifier with guitar effect pedals is often associated with funky, disco-infused 1970s rock.

Guy Sigsworth has played clavichord in a modern setting with Björk, notably on the studio recording of "All Is Full Of Love". Björk also made extensive use of and even played the instrument herself on the song "My Juvenile" of her 2007 album ''Volta''.

Tori Amos uses the instrument on "Little Amsterdam" from the album ''Boys For Pele'' as well as on the song "Smokey Joe" from her 2007 album ''American Doll Posse''. Amos also featured her use of the clavinet on her 2004 recording "Not David Bowie", released as part of her 2006 boxed set, ''A Piano: The Collection''.

In 1976 Oscar Peterson played (with Joe Pass on acoustic guitar) songs from Porgy And Bess on the clavichord. Keith Jarrett also recorded an album entitled ''Book of Ways'' (1987) in which he plays a series of clavichord improvisations. The Beatles' "For No One" (1966) features Paul McCartney playing the clavichord. Rick Wakeman plays the clavichord in the track "The Battle" from the album Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

Structure and action

In the clavichord, strings run transversely from the hitchpin rail at the left-hand end to tuning pegs on the right. Towards the right end they pass over a curved wooden bridge. The action is simple, with the keys being levers with a small brass tangent, a small piece of metal similar in shape and size to the head of a flat-bladed screwdriver, at the far end. The strings, which are usually of brass, or else a combination of brass and iron, are usually arranged in pairs, like a lute or mandolin. When the key is pressed, the tangent strikes the strings above, causing them to sound in a similar fashion to the ''hammering'' technique on a guitar. Unlike in a piano action, the tangent does not rebound from the string; rather, it stays in contact with the string as long as the key is held, acting as both the nut and as the initiator of sound. The volume of the note can be changed by striking harder or softer, and the pitch can also be affected by varying the force of the tangent against the string (known as ''Bebung''). When the key is released, the tangent loses contact with the string and the vibration of the string is silenced by strips of damping cloth.

The action of the clavichord is unique among all keyboard instruments in that one part of the action simultaneously initiates the sound vibration while at the same time defining the endpoint of the vibrating string, and thus its pitch. Because of this intimate contact between the player's hand and the production of sound, the clavichord has been referred to as the most intimate of keyboard instruments. Despite its many (serious) limitations, including extremely low volume, it has considerable expressive power, the player being able to control attack, duration, volume, and even provide certain subtle effects of swelling of tone and a type of vibrato unique to the clavichord.

Fretting

Since the string vibrates from the bridge only as far as the tangent, multiple keys with multiple tangents can be assigned to the same string. This is called ''fretting''. Early clavichords frequently had many notes played on each string, even going so far as the keyed monochord — an instrument with only one string — though most clavichords were triple- or double-fretted. Since only one note can be played at a time on each string, the fretting pattern is generally chosen so that notes which are rarely heard together (such as C and C#) share a string pair. The advantages to this system compared with unfretted instruments (see below) include relative ease of tuning (with around half as many strings to keep in tune), greater volume (though still not really enough for use in chamber music), and a clearer, more direct sound. Among the disadvantages: temperament could not be re-set without bending the tangents; and playing required a further refinement of touch, since notes sharing a single string played in quick succession needed to be slightly separated to avoid a disagreeable deadening of the sound, potentially disturbing a legato line. Some clavichords have been built with a single pair of strings for each note. The first known reference to one was by Johann Speth in 1693 and the earliest such extant signed and dated clavichord was built in 1716 by Johann Michael Heinitz. Such instruments are referred to as ''unfretted'' whereas instruments using the same strings for several notes are called ''fretted''. Among the advantages to unfretted instruments are flexibility in tuning (the temperament can be easily altered) and the ability to play any music exactly as written without concern for "bad" notes. Disadvantages include a smaller volume, even though many or most unfretted instruments tend to be significantly larger than fretted instruments; and ''many'' more strings to keep in tune. Unfretted instruments tend to have a sweeter, less incisive tone due to the greater load on the bridge resulting from the greater number of strings, though the large, late (early 19th century) Swedish clavichords tend to be the loudest of any of the historic clavichords.

Pedal clavichord

While clavichords were typically single manual instruments, they could be stacked to provide multiple keyboards. With the addition of a pedal clavichord, which included a pedal keyboard for the lower notes, a clavichord could be used to practice organist repertoire. In the era of pipe organs which used hand-pumped blowers, and of churches which were only heated during church services, organists used pedal harpsichords and pedal clavichords as practice instruments (see also: pedal piano). There is speculation that some works written for organ may have been intended for pedal clavichord. An interesting case is made by that Bach's "Eight Little Preludes and Fugues", now thought to be spurious, may actually be authentic. The keyboard writing seems unsuited to organ, but Speerstra argues that they are idiomatic on the pedal clavichord. As Speerstra and also note, the compass of the keyboard parts of Bach's six organ trio sonatas BWV 525–530 rarely go below the tenor C, so could have been played on a single manual pedal clavichord, by moving the left hand down an octave, a customary practice in the 18th century. Various modern copies have been made of surviving pedal clavichords, such as the one in the Instrumenten-Museum in the University of Leipzig built in the 1760s by the organ-builder Johann David Gerstenberg from Geringswalde in Saxony.

Repertoire

Much of the musical repertoire written for harpsichord and organ from the period circa 1400–1800 can be played on the clavichord; however, it does not have enough (unamplified) volume to participate in chamber music, with the possible exception of providing accompaniment to a soft baroque flute, recorder, or single singer. J. S. Bach's son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was a great proponent of the instrument, and most of his German contemporaries regarded it as a central keyboard instrument, for performing, teaching, composing and practicing. Among recent clavichord recordings, those by Christopher Hogwood (''The Secret Bach'', ''The Secret Handel'', and, most recently, ''The Secret Mozart''), break new ground. In his liner notes, Hogwood points out that these composers would typically have played the clavichord in the privacy of their homes. The English composer Herbert Howells(1892–1983) wrote two significant collections of pieces for Clavichord (Lambert's Clavichord & Howells' Clavichord).

Notes

References

External links

Introduction of "The Clavichord" by Bernard Brauchli

A brief history of the clavichord

Tuning for playing J. S. Bach

Clavichord International

British Clavichord Society

Boston Clavichord Society

The pedal clavichord (in French)

Clavichords at the house of Heinrich Schütz (in German)

Extant historical clavichords at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

* Clavichord by Christian Kintzing, Neuwied, Germany, 1763

* Clavichord by John Christopher Jesse, Halberstadt, Germany, 1765

* Clavichord, Germany, 18th century

Category:String instruments Category:Keyboard instruments Category:Composite chordophones Category:Early musical instruments

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Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788) was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and second (surviving) son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. He was a crucial composer in the transition between the Baroque and Classical periods, and one of the founders of the Classical style, composing in the Rococo and Classical periods. His second name was given in honor of his godfather Georg Philipp Telemann, a friend of Emanuel's father.

Life and works

Emanuel Bach was born in Weimar. When he was ten years old he entered the St. Thomas School at Leipzig, where his father had become cantor in 1723, and continued his education as a student of jurisprudence at the universities of Leipzig (1731) and of Frankfurt (Oder) (1735). In 1738, at the age of 24, he took his degree, but at once abandoned his prospects of a legal career and determined to devote himself to music.

A few months later (armed with a recommendation by Sylvius Leopold Weiss) he obtained an appointment in the service of Frederick II of Prussia ("Frederick the Great"), the then crown prince, and upon Frederick's accession in 1740 Emanuel became a member of the royal orchestra. He was by this time one of the foremost clavier-players in Europe, and his compositions, which date from 1731, include about thirty sonatas and concert pieces for harpsichord and clavichord. During his time there, Berlin was a rich artistic environment, where Bach mixed with many accomplished musicians, including several notable former students of his father, and important literary figures, such as Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, with whom the composer would become close friends.

In Berlin he continued to write numerous musical pieces for solo keyboard, including a series of character pieces, the so-called "Berlin Portraits," including La Caroline.

His reputation was established by the two published sets of sonatas which he dedicated respectively to Frederick the Great and to the grand duke of Württemberg. In 1746 he was promoted to the post of chamber musician, and served the king with the likes of Carl Heinrich Graun, Johann Joachim Quantz, and Franz Benda.

His publication, ''An Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments'' was a definitive work on technique. It broke with rigid tradition in allowing, even encouraging the use of the thumbs, and became the standard on finger technique for keyboards. The essay basically lays out the fingering for each chord and some chord sequences. The techniques are largely followed to this day. The first part of the ''Essay'' has a chapter explaining the various embellishments in work of the period, e.g., trills, turns, mordents, etc. The second part presents Emanuel Bach's ideas on the art of figured bass and counterpoint, where he gives preference to the contrapuntal approach to harmonization over the newer ideas of Rameau's theory of harmony and root progressions. Emanuel Bach's work was influential on, among others, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.

During his residence in Berlin, he wrote a fine setting of the Magnificat (1749), in which he shows more traces than usual of his father's influence; an Easter cantata (1756); several symphonies and concerted works; at least three volumes of songs; and a few secular cantatas and other occasional pieces. But his main work was concentrated on the clavier, for which he composed, at this time, nearly two hundred sonatas and other solos, including the set ''Mit veränderten Reprisen'' (1760–1768) and a few of those ''für Kenner und Liebhaber''. Meanwhile he placed himself in the forefront of European critics by his ''Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen'', a systematic and masterly treatise which by 1780 had reached its third edition, and which laid the foundation for the methods of Muzio Clementi and Johann Baptist Cramer.

In 1768 Emanuel Bach succeeded Georg Philipp Telemann (his godfather) as director of music at Hamburg, and in consequence of his new office began to turn his attention more towards church music. The next year he produced his oratorio ''Die Israeliten in der Wüste'' (''The Israelites in the Desert''), a composition remarkable not only for its great beauty but for the resemblance of its plan to that of Felix Mendelssohn's ''Elijah'', and between 1768 and 1788 wrote twenty-one settings of the Passion, and some seventy cantatas, litanies, motets, and other liturgical pieces. At the same time, his genius for instrumental composition was further stimulated by the career of Joseph Haydn.

He married Johanna Maria Dannemann in 1744. Only three of their children lived to adulthood – Johann Adam (1745–89), Anna Carolina Philippina (1747–1804) and Johann Sebastian (1748–78). None became musicians. Emanuel Bach died in Hamburg on 14 December 1788. He was buried in the Michaeliskirche (Church of St. Michael) in Hamburg.

Legacy and musical style

Through the latter half of the 18th century, the reputation of Emanuel Bach stood very high. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart said of him, "He is the father, we are the children." The best part of Joseph Haydn's training was derived from a study of his work. Ludwig van Beethoven expressed for his genius the most cordial admiration and regard. This position he owes mainly to his keyboard sonatas, which mark an important epoch in the history of musical form. Lucid in style, delicate and tender in expression, they are even more notable for the freedom and variety of their structural design; they break away altogether from both the Italian and the Viennese schools, moving instead toward the cyclical and improvisatory forms that would become common several generations later.

The content of his work is full of invention and, most importantly, extreme unpredictability, and wide emotional range even within a single work, a style that may be categorised as ''Empfindsamer Stil''. It is no less sincere in thought than polished and felicitous in phrase. He was probably the first composer of eminence who made free use of harmonic colour for its own sake since the time of Lassus, Monteverdi, and Gesualdo. In this way, he compares well with the most important representatives of the First Viennese School. In fact he exerted enormous influence on the North German School of composers, in particular Georg Anton Benda, Bernhard Joachim Hagen, Ernst Wilhelm Wolf, Johann Gottfried Müthel, Friedrich Wilhelm Rust and many others. His influence was not limited to his contemporaries, and extended to Felix Mendelssohn and Carl Maria von Weber.

His name fell into neglect during the 19th century, with Robert Schumann notoriously opining that "as a creative musician he remained very far behind his father"; in contrast, Johannes Brahms held him in high regard and edited some of his music. The revival of Emanuel Bach's works has been underway since Helmuth Koch's rediscovery and recording of his symphonies in the 1960s, and Hugo Ruf's recordings of his keyboard sonatas. There is an ongoing effort to record his complete works, led by Miklos Spanyi on the Swedish record label BIS.

Works list

Media

See also

:Category:Compositions by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

Notes

Further reading

A list and critical account of his voluminous compositions may be found in the ''New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''(1980). A complete edition entitled ''Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The Complete Works'' is under way and scheduled to be completed by 2014.

References

External links

A Tribute to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Sketch of the composer's life with extensive references.

Complete Catalogue of C.P.E. Bach's oeuvre (French)

Website of the edition ''Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The Complete Works.''

Finding the Lost Manuscripts of C.P.E. Bach ''Greater Boston Arts''

Scores

Trio sonata in C minor, H. 579, first edition (From the Sibley Music Library Digital Score Collection)

Fantasia e fuga in C minor, H. 75.5, for keyboard instrument (From the Sibley Music Library Digital Score Collection)

Category:1714 births Category:1788 deaths Carl Philipp Emanuel Category:Classical era composers Category:Composers for pipe organ Category:German composers Category:German harpsichordists Category:German classical pianists Category:People from Weimar Category:German Lutherans Category:University of Leipzig alumni Category:Viadrina European University alumni Category:18th-century German people Category:German music theorists

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