The Clavichord Paperback – 7 March 2005

As I said in the top—a goldmine. This book plus detailed measurements of one of the 16th century Leipzig I found online will enable me to build mg own. I’m not an expert at all on. The clavichord but this book strikes me as basically one stop shopping. The author’s exploration of the iconography of the early instruments is thorough and really interesting.

Ein leises Instrument für eine immer lauter werdende Welt, das ist das Clavichord. Die ganze Welt dieses aus der Zeit gefallenen Instruments wird in “The Clavichord“ kenntnisreich und gut strukturiert ausgebreitet. Zahlreiche Bilder und Grafiken ergänzen den Text. Diese Buch hätte Hardcover verdient, ansonsten ein Genuß für Herz und Hirn.

I bought this for my son, he'd previously borrowed it from the British Library and found it useful.As this book seemed to be increasing in price I decided to buy it for him.He was very pleased as not many books are published on this subject.He recommends owning a copy.thanks

Brauchli's book is currently the most comprehensive history of the clavichord. It also has many images of the instrument, both iconographically and physically. I bought the paperback version, which is cheaper. A must-have for anyone interested in clavichords!

This is an attractive book, on many levels. The illustrations, diagrams and history of the instrument are all well-structured and detailed, many surviving instruments being described. My one main criticism, that their relative sound - however subjective such verbal descriptions must needs be - goes unmentioned. (Obviously, a companion CD would have been a great asset to this volume, which in so many way has an air of completeness about it - Herr Brauchli being a foremost authority on the subject.)Which makes it all the harder to confront the one elephantine blind spot - about on a par with Kramnik's missed Mate in one, it seems to me - and all apologies to Herr Brauchli for having to do so. For on page 275, under the heading Ornamentation, we read the following: "Besides [two techniques specific to the clavichord], keyboard treatises gave no other instructions for the use of ornaments on this instrument".I would be surprised if anyone reading this was unfamiliar with the Versuch of Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach (whose primary instrument was undoubtedly the clavichord) and its detailed instructions for ornamentation. This alone would be enough to negate the quote above, but what seems so astonishing is that no thought is given to the writings of the 16th-century Spanish theorist/musicians, in particular those of Juan Bermudo (who advises practising trills for an hour a day) and Thomas de Sancta Maria (who not only gives some very precise indications, but also stresses the importance of ornaments by listing them as the second necessity for beginners' practise (after 'runs up and down the keyboard with suitable fingerings' - which latter by the way include our familiar 5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1, as well as the earlier paired types). Trills with and without turns (which come at the start of the trill) and occasionally an upper auxiliary which comes before the beat, turns (described as starting after the beat), and the familiar mordant and its upward mirror - also (especially the former) deployed without striking the main note twice. An excellent tabular correlation of the sources can be found in a useful monograph by the late Nelly van Ree Bernard, "Interpretation of 16th-century Iberian Music on the Clavichord". But even a core textbook like Howard Ferguson's "Keyboard Interpretation" has most of this information, and has been in print for more than 35 years.