“The clavichord, that individual, melancholic, inexpressibly sweet instrument, has advantages over the harpsichord and the fortepiano when made by a master of his craft. It produces not only musical colouring but also middle tints, notes swelling and dying away, melting trills hardly breathing under the fingers, portato or vibrato; in a word expression for every shade of feeling.
All this can be reproduced and conjured up by the pressure of the finger, the vibration and throb of the strings, and by a touch heavy or gentle. Those who do not care for bluster, frenzy or storm, and whose hearts find frequent and welcome relief in the overflow of sweet sentiment, will pass over the harpsichord and choose a clavichord.(...)
When you improvise by the light of the moon, or refresh your soul on summer nights, or celebrate the evenings of spring ; ah, then pine not for the strident harpsichord. See, your clavichord breathes as gently as your heart.” |
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