Clavichord for Beginners

4. Clavichord Lessons, Series II

31 chaPter four Clavichord Lessons, Series II When you can play in time and in tune and begin to produce singing tones, other clavichord skills will open up for you. Gradually you will learn to make use of the subtle, expressive effects that are so natural to the clavichord. Lesson One: Degrees of Softness Of all keyboard instruments, the clavichord is the most capable of delicate, dynamic shading down to the softest pianissimo. These fine shadings are heard best by the player and a few listeners positioned near the clavichord’s soundboard. Shading on a clavichord involves many variables. Each key has its own shading possibilities. Likewise, each clavichord has its own range of dynamics. The breadth and subtleties of this range are interdependent on both your hands and your technique . Variables include the soundboard’s resonance, the depth of each key dip, the key’s resistance to pressure, and the tautness or resilience of each set of strings from treble to bass. With practice, you can take advantage of the dynamic spectrum of your clavichord . Eventually you will learn to adapt to various clavichords and their special needs. Basically, however, there is a special technique for achieving softer tones on the clavichord. Exercise 1: Producing a Decrescendo by Repeatedly Playing a Single Key • For a full sound, start playing from the key level. Listen to how the tone fades by itself. This will affect the way you play the following tone. • For a slightly softer sound, first lower the key a minute fraction of an inch so the tangent is closer to the strings. Then start at this level to produce , and hold, a tone. • For still softer sounds, lower the key further by degrees before playing. It is like an elevator stopping at different floors. 32 Clavichord for Beginners The lower you begin and the more gently your finger strokes the key, the softer the sound will be until you hear no sound at all (figure 4.1). Exercise 2: Playing a Decrescendo on a Single Key at Various Points in the Treble and Bass • Note the difference in the width of the key dip, the length of sound, and the range of shading you can achieve. Eventually you will learn to adapt to various clavichords and their special characteristics . On fine clavichords of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, shades of dynamic possibilities are subtle, like the various tints of a miniature painting. You can use these shades very effectively to contour one voice and relate it to other voices. In contrast, large clavichords of the late eighteenth century offer a very wide dynamic range that allows you to extend crescendos and diminuendos for several measures, creating a new sense of drama. It takes ability, curiosity, and patience to build a clavichord that shades well. Characteristics to consider include how the tone blooms, the amount of listing (dampening cloth), the balance of each key lever, the slant of the top of a tangent, and the way it strikes the strings. A clavichord maker in my area specializes in large clavichords based on the work of Pehr Lindholm, an eighteenth-century Swedish builder. Already in the 1960s I had admired and performed on Lindholm clavichords in Europe, and eventually I brought a Lindholm home. Recently I showed the local maker that although he had achieved the louder colors of Lindholms, the very facile action of his keys made it difficult to shade softer tones. “Just push the keys harder,” he said. Then he decided to explore. Usually he balanced a key lever by weighting it with lead at the far end (the easy way). Now he carefully cut out a little wood from under the playing end of the key lever, treating each lever on its own. When the clavichord was finished, we found it could be shaded effortlessly down to an exquisite pianissimo! FIgure 4.1. 33 Clavichord Lessons, Series II Lesson Two: Degrees of Loudness There is an illusion of loudness on the clavichord that comes from starting at a very soft level and in the following notes suddenly or gradually increasing the sound. Emanuel Bach’s sudden shifts from pianissimo to fortissimo, for example, can be shockingly dramatic (example 4.1). Other ways of affecting the loudness of a sound are as follows. (The latter two are for when you are more advanced.) • Play as closely as you can to the edge of the...