![\"Reconstruction](\"https:\/\/taylorsfineviolins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/C1.jpg\" "\\"C1\\"")
\n\t\n\tReconstruction of Cembal d’Amour circa 1721<\/p>\n
About half of my musical instrument filled life has been taken not on violins, but in building historically accurate copies of 1700s Baroque clavichords, a keyboard instrument popular with German musicians like JS and CPE Bach, even Haydn and Mozart. The clavichord is the quietest keyboard instrument, but in many ways the most beautiful and expressive sounding keyboard. It is the only keyboard that allows one to play vibrato, like on a violin, by pushing the key up and down, changing the pitch noticeably, While it plays louder and softer like a piano, its range is more from pianissimo to ppp, than forte to piano, like a piano. It is about 1\/4 as loud as a quieter harpsichord. The instrument I built pictured above is a special and incredibly large variation on the clavichord called the Cembal d’Amour invented around 1721 by a famous organ builder friend of JS Bach’s named Gottfried Silbermann. Many of his organs are still played in churches around Germany today. This particular instrument is 9 1\/2 feet wide and somewhat louder than most clavichords, because it has two soundboards, striking the strings precisely in the middle, with effectively 4 strings vibrating per note instead of two, like the quieter clavichord. I was able to get a top recording artist, who unfortunately wants to remain anonymous, to record an amazing CD of this instrument and three other clavichords I have built. Thanks to the wonders of computers the whole CD is available on youtube, and I post the links to the recordings below.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t![\"Sketch](\"https:\/\/taylorsfineviolins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/c2.jpg\" "\\"c2\\"")
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Early 1700s drawing of Silbermann’s Cembal d’Amour<\/p>\n\t