Clavichord for Beginners

5. Preparing for Pieces

47 chaPter five Preparing for Pieces Before you begin to play short pieces of the eighteenth century, it is important to have a repertoire of basic ornaments. At that time, beginners on the clavichord were first taught to play ornaments without music. You too may begin with individual ornaments, learning to make them clean and even. This is not simple on the clavichord , since its touch is so flexible. It is this touch, however, that will eventually free you to express the most delicate ornamental details. Like variations in dynamics and articulation (and affected by them both), ornaments can become a very subtle aspect of your playing. In general, rapid ornaments are easier to play on the harpsichord. Plucking a string with a plectrum is more precise than striking and pressing it with a tangent. In fact, practicing ornaments on the harpsichord can help you think of them distinctly , keeping in mind that the sound point on the clavichord will be inexact unless controlled. To prepare for playing ornaments on the clavichord, I have included an exercise (example 5.1). Play it from key level, slowly and attentively, making sure you use a clavichord touch. Then try short groups a little faster as you are able. You may relax after the last note of each group. After you can play example 5.1 with ease, you may extend it, but very slowly, to all five fingers in example 5.2. To play the notes equally requires the utmost attention on the clavichord. exAMPLe 5.1 48 Clavichord for Beginners 1. Place your five right-hand fingers over GABCD (example 5.2). 2. Play the exercise slowly, keeping the wrist relaxed. Take time to rest whenever needed. • Make sure to position the thumb and fingers 4 and 5 correctly, paying special attention to their power and independence. • Rather than tense the fingers, keep them flexible and free. 3. Now play this exercise in the left hand with your fingers over CDEFG (example 5.3). In 1720 J. S. Bach gave his young son Wilhelm Friedemann a little music book in which he included a table of ornaments. Five of them, in his handwriting, are pictured in figure 5.1. Before proceeding, examine them carefully. exAMPLe 5.2 exAMPLe 5.3 FIgure 5.1 49 Preparing for Pieces The Trill For eighteenth-century music, the most important ornament for a beginner is the trill. Since it is difficult, Emanuel Bach says it must be “practiced diligently from the start.”1 The eventual aim is to enhance a melody by finger strokes that are uniform , light, and rapid. Tendons must stay relaxed, or the trill will “grow ragged” or “bleat.”2 In his School of Clavier Playing (1789), Daniel Gottlob Türk writes specifically about the clavichord.3 He says, in essence, to first play the trill slowly with fingers 2 and 3. For beginners, the upper note tends to be weaker and faster than the lower. Only when the notes are equal in strength and speed (and stay on pitch) can the player begin to play the trill more rapidly.4 Listed here are the basic types of trills, according to Emanuel Bach and Türk: 1. A short trill is the most necessary and attractive of all trills, yet it is only effective when played very fast. At first, try it slowly to be sure of the proper touch. Then link it to the preceding note and see if you can make it crackle with great speed. Keep your fingers close to the keys except for the last upper note, which rebounds quickly from the key while the final lower note is held securely on pitch (example 5.4).5 2. For a long trill, the notes must be even. The last upper note is snapped quickly. “After the stroke, the upper joint of the finger is sharply doubled and drawn off the key [toward the palm] as quickly as possible.”6 Thus the next finger, holding a specific pitch, “may play its tone distinctly” (example 5.5).7 exAMPLe 5.5 exAMPLe 5.4 50 Clavichord for Beginners 3. A trill on a long note can be smoothed out with a suffix such as the mordent (as in J. S. Bach’s example at the beginning of this lesson).8 The suffix is played close to the keys as rapidly and easily as the trill itself.9 This...