The clavichord is rectangular in shape, and its strings run from left to right across the keys, which are placed along one of the longer sides of the rectangle. The soundboard of the instrument is at the right-hand end of the case, and the vibrations of the strings are communicated to it by a bridge on which the strings rest. The soundboard amplifies the sound of the strings by permitting them to set a large mass of air into vibration rather than the very small mass of air that contacts the string itself. (This is the same principle that makes a tuning fork sound louder when its stem is pressed against a tabletop.)

The clavichord’s operation is extremely simple. A brass blade rather like the end of a screwdriver is driven into the top surface of each key near the back of the key; a smaller piece of wood, whalebone, or horn is driven into the back end of the key. (This piece fits into a fixed slot behind the key and prevents the key from moving from side to side as it moves up and down.) When the front end of the key is pushed down by the finger, the back end rises, and the brass blade, called a tangent, strikes the strings (which in most clavichords are arranged in pairs), causing them to vibrate. To the left of the tangent a strip of cloth is woven between the strings. When the key is struck, only the portion of the strings to the right of the tangent—i.e., between the tangent and the bridge—sounds; the cloth prevents the string section to the left of the tangent from sounding. As soon as the key is released, the tangent falls away from the strings, which are then entirely silenced by the cloth. Because the sounding portion of each string is the segment between tangent and bridge, the tangent serves not only to set the strings in vibration but also to determine their sounding length. Thus, a series of tangents striking a given pair of strings at different points will produce a series of different notes, and all the earliest clavichords were designed to take advantage of this fact. Arnaut of Zwolle’s clavichord used only 9 or 10 pairs of strings to produce all the 37 notes of its 3-octave keyboard, and the clavichord represented in an Italian intarsia (picture in wood inlay) of about 1480 (Palazzo Ducale, Urbino) used only 17 pairs of strings to produce 47 notes in a 4-octave range.

Making a single pair of strings serve several keys had two important disadvantages. Because each pair of strings can sound only one note at a time, it is impossible to play any two notes sounded from the same strings simultaneously, making it impossible to play certain chords. Furthermore, an unpleasant clanking sound is likely to result if the performer attempts legato playing of successive notes sounded from the same strings, making it necessary to play in a semidetached fashion.

As early as the time of Arnaut of Zwolle, the first of these disadvantages was minimized by allowing no more than four keys to sound from the same pair of strings and by carefully choosing the points at which such groups of four keys were placed, so that only dissonant chords would be unplayable. The second problem could be solved only when a maximum of two keys were served by the same strings, so that each natural key shared its strings only with the sharp or flat next to it. G, for example, was paired with G♯, and in the music of the period the two notes were seldom needed at the same time or in immediate succession. Of course, if one wanted to use the G♯ key as an A♭, the problem would reassert itself; but, as long as meantone tuning was in use, the G♯ could not serve as A♭ in any case.

Eventually, however, it was felt necessary to be able to play in all tonalities without restrictions either of style of playing or in the use of dissonant chords, and clavichords began to be built with one pair of strings for each key. Such clavichords are called “unfretted,” in contrast to those having several keys for each pair of strings, which are called “fretted.” Although the unfretted clavichord was known as early as 1693, the oldest extant example, built by Hieronymus Albrecht Hass of Hamburg (Ger.), dates from 1742. Fretted clavichords were being made well into the 1780s; they had fewer strings to go out of tune, and the smaller number of strings permitted all the keys to be shorter and more equal in length, giving the instrument a superior touch. In addition, the smaller number of strings imposed a smaller downward force on the soundboard, resulting in a brighter, clearer tone.

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Tone quality

The greatest disadvantage of the clavichord is its extremely soft tone. Because it arises directly from the way in which the sound of the instrument is produced, this disadvantage cannot readily be overcome. It is impossible to impart very much energy to a string by striking it at one end (it is for this reason that a guitarist makes less sound when he strikes the strings against the fingerboard with his left hand than when he plucks them with his right, even though the pitches produced are the same). In compensation, the clavichordist alone of all keyboard-instrument players has control over a note once it has been struck. As long as a note is sounding, he has contact with the string through the tangent and key, and by changing his pressure on the key he can vary the pitch of the note, produce a controlled vibrato, or even create the illusion of prolonging or swelling the tone. Although the maximum loudness of which a clavichord is capable is not great, its softest pianissimo is very soft indeed, and the clavichordist controls an infinite number of gradations in loudness between these two extremes. As a result of this touch sensitivity, the clavichord was highly valued as a teaching and practice instrument. In addition, its relative cheapness made it the normal domestic keyboard instrument in Germany, Iberia, and Scandinavia.

The quiet tone of the clavichord made it impractical to use the instrument in ensemble music, except for providing a discreet accompaniment for a flutist or a singer. Although much of the solo keyboard music of the 16th–18th centuries can be played on the clavichord, it cannot be stated that much of it before the latter part of the 18th century was especially composed with the clavichord in mind. At that time, however, the clavichord experienced a great revival in Germany, and music composed with its singing tone and unique capabilities of dynamic shading and vibrato was written for it by such masters as Carl Philip Emanuel Bach (1714–88).

Clavichords continued to be made in Germany and Scandinavia well into the 19th century, long after the piano was popular. Indeed, many instrument makers built both clavichords and pianos (and harpsichords as well). The continued demand for the older instruments may have been a consequence—among other things—of musicians’ recognition of the three instruments’ differing capabilities.

The clavichord owes its modest modern revival in the United Kingdom and America largely to the efforts of Arnold Dolmetsch, who began building clavichords and performing on them in public in the 1890s. Both his style of playing the clavichord and the design of his instruments were influential for a long period. Today, however, increasing numbers of clavichord makers and players are exploring earlier forms of the instrument.