The Clavichord

by Bernard Brauchli , Foreword by Christopher Hogwood

• ISBN13: 9780521619899
• ISBN10: 0521619890
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-03-07
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The clavichord, forerunner of the piano, was one of the most important instruments in Western keyboard history until the first decades of the nineteenth century. Bernard Brauchli's comprehensive history fills a major gap in the literature on this instrument. Beginning with the earliest-known references, he traces the clavichord's evolution up to the mid-nineteenth century, ending with a study of performance technique. The clavichord's structural developments (traced largely through an analysis of extant instruments), literary documentation (much of it presented here for the first time in English), treatises and iconographical sources are presented in chronological order. What emerges from this study of the various sources is an overview of the essential role this instrument played both socially and musically for more than four centuries, restoring the clavichord to the position it justly deserves in history. Awarded the Nicholas Bessaraboff Prize for 2001, honoring the best book-length organological study in the English language published in 1998/99.

Table of Contents

List of plates	ix
Acknowledgements	xvi
Foreword	xviii
Christopher Hogwood
Introduction	1	(7)
Origins of the clavichord	8	(13)
The monochord	9	(4)
The organistrum	13	(1)
Bowed monochords and tromba marina	13	(1)
The chekker	14	(2)
The keyed monochord	16	(1)
First references to the clavichord	16	(1)
The psaltery and the tympanon	17	(1)
The keyboard	18	(3)
The early clavichord: 1400 to the beginning of the sixteenth century	21	(34)
Iconographical documents	21	(7)
Early treatises	28	(16)
Literary sources	44	(11)
The clavichord in the sixteenth century	55	(40)
Extant sixteenth-century clavichords	56	(21)
Iconographical sources	77	(7)
Sixteenth-century treatises	84	(6)
Literary sources	90	(5)
The clavichord in the seventeenth century	95	(41)
Extant instruments	95	(18)
Seventeenth-century iconographical documents	113	(3)
Seventeenth-century treatises	116	(13)
Literary sources	129	(7)
The clavichord in the eighteenth century	136	(94)
England, France and Italy	137	(7)
Germany and its neighbouring countries	144	(32)
Sweden and other Scandinavian countries	176	(9)
Spain and Portugal	185	(4)
The New World	189	(3)
Eighteenth-century treatises	192	(21)
Eighteenth-century composers and the clavichord	213	(17)
The clavichord in the early nineteenth century	230	(23)
Germany	231	(2)
Sweden	233	(1)
The Iberian peninsula	234	(2)
Nineteenth-century treatises	236	(17)
Aspects of clavichord performance practice	253	(25)
Hand and finger positions, as seen in early treatises and iconographical documents	253	(14)
The Bebung and Tragen der Tone	267	(7)
Slurred notes	274	(1)
Arpeggios	275	(1)
Ornamentation	275	(1)
Tempo	276	(2)
Conclusion	278	(3)
Appendix 1 A comprehensive list of iconographical documents on the clavichord	281	(14)
Appendix 2 Technical terms in five languages	295	(2)
Appendix 3 Leopoldo Franciolini	297	(2)
Notes	299	(62)
Bibliography	361	(12)
Index	373