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The clavichord "is not an easy instrument to play well, and the better the instrument, the more difficult it is likely to be to play, as its sensitivity invariably means that the slightest unintended fluctuation in touch will be clearly audible as a difference in loudness and pitch. Moreover, as the pressure exerted on the keys affects the pitch of the notes, the performer must maintain an even pressure after striking, and must think about the notes all the time they are sounding, and not merely at their beginning and end." Mastery of the clavichord's difficulty is a rewarding experience for both musician and audience, though, and a sensitive, technically able player can achieve an enormous range of effects and variation in dynamic range, from an almost inaudible pianissimo to a bold and fiery fortissimo. Though the volume of the instrument is relatively small, this slight limitation - which means that the clavichord is more at home in an intimate concert setting - is more than adequately overcome by its rich array of expressive qualities. It is truly "the most subtle and expressive of (those instruments) whose sound is produced by strings rather than by pipes".
A variety of pedagogical works dealing with clavichord technique appeared over the centuries. The first to address the important question of hand and finger position, a treatise Libro llamado Arte de tañer fantasía, así para tecla como para vihuela, by Tomás de Santa María, appeared in Vallodolid in 1565. The section of the work entitled "On the Manner of Properly Placing the Hands" states that "the hands have to be crooked, like the paws of a cat, with no hump between the hand and the fingers, so that the roots of the fingers are kept very low (...). One must strike the keys with the ball of the finger so that the nail never touches the keys. This can be done by lowering the wrist and stretching the fingers forward, whereby the notes sound full, soft and sweet (...)". It has been suggested that the reference to low wrists was related to positive organ technique; remarks in subsequent works advocated a position in which the wrist is held in a straight line extending from the arm to the hand. Further treatises were published in Italy by Girolamo Diruta -Il Transilvano- in 1593 and Lorenzo Penna -I primi albori musicali per il principianti della musica figurata- in 1684. Diruta is the first writer to "stress the importance of total relaxation in the hands and arms"; he also advocated playing with the hands cupped in a natural way. These recommendations are largely borne out in the iconographical documents showing clavichord players at their instruments: as time passed, the crooked finger position was supplanted by a higher hand position with slightly arched fingers.
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