Early Music VII: Little Pieces

This is just a little piece by Bach that I've had in my head all weekend.

J.S. Bach, Prelude 1 in C major from Klavierbuchlein for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (BWV 924)

Joseph Payne, clavichord

These pieces are from a practice book Bach compiled for his oldest son, Wilhelm Friedmann.

Early Music V: Private Performances

The problem with most recordings of the clavichord is that they treat it as an instrument for public performance. The result is a distant dinky noise that doesn't much merit being called music or art. No, the clavichord is an instrument for private performance, for the player and perhaps someone sitting alongside him. The clavichord developed primarily as a practice instrument for organists, which allowed them to play quietly in their homes, even at night while others were sleeping. That it was primarily a practice instrument for private purposes (with the exception of some larger later instruments) should not lead one to think any less of the instrument, for among the stringed keyboard instruments, nothing comes close to the clavichord in its sensitivity, intimacy, and expressiveness.

What I love about this performance of Padre Antonio Soler's concertos (on two clavichords!) is that, besides being an incredibly articulate interpretation, it also is one of the few that captures the clavichord at its best: how the player or his intimate companion hears it. Check it out.

Padre Antonio Soler, Concerto No. 1 in C major, for two keyboards

Bernard Brauchli and Esteban Elizondo, clavichords

Veni, Veni Emmanuel

In my opinion, one of the best YouTube music performance videos. I posted it on Under My Roof way back in the day. Time to pay it homage here. This is the Veni Emmanuel as found in the 1940 Hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church, but ultimately taken from the medieval plainchant. Played on clavichord by George Becker.