Re: [F_minor] Look at what I found on You Tube

[Brad Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

> Clavichords never have pedals for  coupling
> nor do they have multiple sound qualities as this instrument does. They  also 
> are always table-top, never free-standing like this.

Clavichords usually *do* have legs.  The big difference between 
clavichords and harpsichords is that clavichords strike the strings 
(making a new bridge at the contact point -- not rebounding away as 
piano hammers do), while harpsichords pluck them.

True, clavichords don't have multiple stops.  Each of its "tangents" 
simply hits the string (or pair of strings, on some) at one 
pre-determined point.

Clavichords are very quiet.  I can play mine while my children are 
sleeping on the other side of the same wall.  Harpsichords, even the 
smallest ones, are considerably louder than that.

A photo of my clavichord:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/clav32.jpg

That thing played by GG on the advertised YouTube video is just a 
remarkably bad harpsichord, played by an outstanding keyboard player who 
happened to have *no* trained harpsichord technique.  And he's bashing 
its keyboard way too hard, yielding most of those audible thumps that 
aren't supposed to be there.


Brad Lehman
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