source file: m1604.txt Date: Sat, 05 Dec 1998 20:31:18 -0800 Subject: Clavichords From: Carl Lumma >I agree regarding harpsichords, but not with the general slight towards >historical keyboards. I would be very curious to learn exactly what kind >of a clavichord you have worked with to have arrived at such an opinion. I have played a variety of clavichords, both fretted and unfretted, including efforts by Thomas Ciul, several Zuckermann kits, and a Peter Fisk, which I own. >While many poorly-made instruments are so badly balanced in action that >bebung is almost inevitable, the timbre of the instruments with which I have >worked has been extremely rich, albeit intimately quiet overall. (A >comparison of the clavichord with the ch'in is appropriate here). I have >had no trouble tuning clavichords to ratios of seven and eleven. Both Norman Henry and I have had little success with ratios above 5 on the clavichord. However, I once had the opportunity to play a Challis clavichord (such a work of art you cannot imagine), and I could see getting 7's on it. I would be very interested in hearing your 11-limit clavichord, and I'd be happy to pay the cost of sending a tape with some samples on it to hear the results. Say... what's a ch'in? >And on a modern instrument, like the Wilson-Hackleman clavichord, it is a >breeze. I am dying to hear this thing! Everybody I asked in LA said it didn't sound very good, tho... >While in the US, I had a fortepiano in my apartment, and I had the >opportunity to compare the ease of tuning it with a (well-known) single->strung Boesendorfer Imperial and with a run of the mill medium-sized >Steinway. All were tuned by ear to a (again well-known) tuning with just >fifths and sevenths and then the tunings measured with a strobe tuner. The >fortepiano was both the easiest to tune and the closest to Just, the >Boesendorfer a respectable second and the Steinway a distant third. I am un-familiar with any single-strung Bosendorfer. Of course they are well known for putting a hitch pin on each string... and for their inferior sound... It's far from clear what your strobe tuner was measuring. I own the latest and highest-end Peterson model made, and my ear rarely agrees with the wheel. I have no problem whatsoever tuning a Steinway to 9-limit JI by ear, to a level of accuracy measurable only (maybe) by a Sanderson Accu-tuner (I've never used one myself, but they do produce very nice tunings). >But I don't know how to even start arguing with someone who claims the >difference between Equal temperament and meantone is hardly noticeable on >a clavichord. Are you, sir, deaf? Don't get me wrong, I love the clavichord. It is an instrument of great sensitivity. But it is based on a bad idea: trying to start and stop a string at the same place. If the string didn't stretch, you wouldn't hear anything at all. I can hear the difference between meantone and 12tET on my clavichord, but the people I play the clavichord for cannot. They can, however, hear the difference between these two tunings on my modern piano. Carl