Clavichord

The clavichord emerged because medieval musicians sought a keyboard instrument that could offer something neither the organ nor the harpsichord provided: direct, intimate control over tone. Where organs produced fixed volumes and harpsichords plucked strings with constant force regardless of key pressure, the clavichord's unique tangent mechanism maintained continuous contact between player and string, enabling dynamics and even vibrato. This made it the most expressive keyboard instrument until the piano arrived three centuries later.

The instrument's origins trace to the monochord—a single-stringed device used since antiquity for studying musical intervals and tuning. Sometime in the 14th century, someone attached a keyboard to this teaching tool, creating a playable instrument. The German poem 'Der Minne Regeln' from 1404 provides the first documented mention, distinguishing the clavichord from the clavicembalo (harpsichord) and naming both as the best instruments for accompanying melodies.

The clavichord's action differs fundamentally from all other keyboard instruments. A small brass blade called a tangent stands on each key just below its string. When the key is pressed, the tangent rises and strikes the string. But unlike a piano hammer that rebounds immediately, the tangent stays in contact with the string for as long as the key is held. The tangent both initiates the vibration and defines the vibrating length of the string—and thus its pitch. This dual function makes the clavichord mechanically unique.

This continuous contact enables remarkable expressiveness. The player can vary volume by controlling key velocity—pressing harder produces louder tones. Even more remarkably, varying finger pressure while holding a note produces bebung, a gentle vibrato created by minute pitch fluctuations as the tangent slightly changes string tension. No other keyboard instrument before the electronic age offered comparable dynamic nuance through touch alone.

The intimate quality came with severe limitations. Clavichords are extremely quiet—their soft tone barely carries across a room. This made them unsuitable for ensemble playing or public performance but perfect for private practice and composition. Johann Sebastian Bach reportedly preferred the clavichord for working out musical ideas, valuing its expressive feedback even though his public performances used harpsichords and organs.

Early clavichords used 'fretted' design, where multiple keys shared the same string, struck at different points by their respective tangents to produce different pitches. This economized on strings but prevented certain note combinations from sounding simultaneously. By the late medieval period, 'unfretted' designs appeared with one string (or string pair) per key, eliminating this limitation but requiring more complex construction.

The clavichord flourished primarily in German-speaking lands, Scandinavia, and the Iberian Peninsula from the 16th through 18th centuries. Its role was pedagogical and compositional rather than performative—the instrument for private hours of practice and musical exploration. When the piano emerged in the early 1700s with its ability to combine dynamic expression with sufficient volume for public performance, the clavichord's niche contracted further. By 1850, the instrument had largely disappeared.

Arnold Dolmetsch's revival of early music in the 1890s brought the clavichord back from obscurity, and performers like Violet Gordon-Woodhouse helped popularize it anew. Today the clavichord commands a devoted following among musicians who value its direct, tactile relationship between player and sound—a quality that even the piano, for all its sophistication, cannot fully replicate.