GERMAN HARPSICHORDS AND CLAVICHORD
 German unfretted clavichord after Schiedmayer. |
This large German clavichord is of the later, unfretted type. With each key controlling only one unison pair of strings, the greatest possible variety of articulation is possible, making this ideal for music in the empfindsamer stil (“sensitive”) style of the mid- and later eighteenth century. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, as well as the eminent English music historian Dr. Charles Burney were lavish in their praise of the clavichord’s great utility in developing fine touch and articulation, not only on the clavichord itself but on the harpsichord as well.
My clavichord is based on an example by the Neustadt an der Aisch instrument maker Johann Schiedmayer, dated 1796, now at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Its exceptional range (FF-g”’) make it an ideal vehicle for the music of C. P. E. Bach and early Haydn, as well as a telling and responsive practice instrument for the fortepiano music of Mozart and earlier Beethoven.