Hello to all interested in clavichord aftertouch questions - I 'd love to hear more ...
A newby to PTeq soundscapes, having ventured in only around a week ago, I am gently finding my way around Pro5, hoping to master its possibilities; and I have long experience of clavichord playing/recitalling and teaching - perforce including elements of instrument maintenance, concert hall tweaking of tangents and string damping, and helping people get the best out of well and less-well crafted models at home.
Am hoping to persuade a few historically-minded modern makers of clavichord to offer distinctive sounds to PTeq. There are many enjoyable as well as challenging styles of acoustic clavichord accessible these days, ranging far beyond the 1940s Hans Neupert design currently presented. Very briefly, there are excellent early fretted models with small shallow cases and fewer strings to the octave, where diatonic scales are playable via angled keys striking (shared) strings at the appropriate (fretted) point. Adaptation of playing technique as well as choice of appropriate repertory are called for. The bright bloom of fretted clavi tone tends to fade away more quickly than that of the less prominently-speaking mid-20C Neupert design. And fretted instruments were in use beyond the time of Mozart, along with larger-cased fret-free models from famed makers such as Silbermann or Hass whose bigger clavis were much-valued in Germanic domestic settings where fortepianos were seen as expressive and more expensive 'cousins'; and repertories of JS and CPE Bach as well as Haydn were played on whatever keybd was favoured for whichever style of musicmaking - harpsi, clavi, fpiano, chamber organ ... And so on ...
In Europe and the U.S. we nowadays have some excellent makers of clavichord and it wld be good if some owners or skilled craftspeople can offer well-regulated sounds to PTeq so that players and composers can choose, find personally favoured computerised sounds, perhaps match repertories to instruments, as in museum collections; or simply enjoy different tonal resources.
Re PTeq's current Neupert palette, my touch-sensitive Roland C30 seems to handle relay of the computerised sounds satisfactorily, as far as I have gone. Within its limits, without having done much (through lack of IT competence) I produce quietly expressive as well as relatively stronger tangent tones, and play Froberger and Frescobaldi with no danger of producing the blocked tone which normal clavichords are prone to if the player does not use sufficient hand weight and after-touch wrist pressure; I have yet to discover whether bebung effects, subtle pitch distortions which may assist cantabile upper lines, can be produced or simulated on demand. As many know, in Bach's time this was a subtle masterly effect, as history has recorded; and a reminder that the clavichord is indeed the only acoustic instrument where the player remains in concentrated touch with the vibrating string, producing tonal inflections after the string has been activated.
Has anybody got sharable clavi experiencein the PTeq community?
Hope to hear
Smiles and good wishes -
Paul