Beethoven still Played the Clavichord in 1825!! 

In Beethoven’s Sonata, Opus 110 (1821), he called for the Bebung effect, a technique applicable only to a clavichord. This may shed light on this topic.

A clavichord with the bedding wrapped around IT, was the way not to get neighbour complaints, even if the well tempered piano was invented. IT was the prefeerd Composers tool for a Long Time, especially because you could travel with it.

a video about what sonatas work on clavichord would be cool

It has such a beautiful sound and is so expressive! It's no surprise! Thanks for sharing!

Definitely make that series about which ones work on the clavichord, please.

The proof of van Beethoven using a clavichord as late as '25 gave me chills! I'd definitely be interested in a series about what Beethoven can and cannot be played on said instrument. I am astounded by your magnificent, groundbreaking research, as always.

I recommend you warmly Jan Caeyer's book about Beethoven. I read it in German: "Beethoven, der einsame Revolutionär". It was written originally in Dutch: Beethoven: een biografie. There is also a translation in Hungarian. His nephew Karl has lived with him and learnt how to play keyboard instruments. First wanted L. v. Beethoven that he becomes a professional musician. He wasn't very talented, has then most probably played as non professional. That explain why the clavichord has to be tuned regularly. L. v. Beethoven himself could also have played, even if he was deaf (7. Mai 1824 he couldn't hear the enthusiastic applauses greeting the 9. Symphony ) just for the physical pleasure of playing. I suppose everyone who play a keyboard instrument will understand that. He also certainly use "Bebung" to feel the vibrations. Then the clavichord was sold and this is another reason to tune it. One reason to sell it could have been that Karl grown up, had to study and perhaps not enough time any more to play all the instruments present in Beethoven's home.

At 46 in 1816 Beethoven was completely deaf. The supposition is that he was able to hear most of his life and, therefore, could recognize tones and especially dissonances simply by the written musical notes. However, one could equally make a point that Beethoven played the out of tune clavichord, and his guests or neighbors complained. Or the 19 year old Karl still played the instrument. or the instrument was being tuned to sell the instrument. There's a variety of possiblities. That the clavichord was till on the map in the Beethoven household does speak several volumes. The first edition Tuerk Clavierschule was published in 1789. An unauthorized and error-filled reprint appeared in Vienna in 1798.Türk issued a second, enlarged edition, but without the Handstücke, in 1802. (He had separately published two sets of 60 exercises in the interim.) An abridged version of the first edition was published in 1792 (Kurze Anweisung zum Klavierspielen, ein Auszug aus der größern Klavierschule) and a second edition of this shorter version in 1805. One could make an argument in favor of the clavichord (or the work co-opted by the pianists) at this time. Beethoven was trained as an organist by Neefe, and clavichords were part of organ practice. And with deference to the clavichord. I am ignorant of any publisher listing piano forte, harpsichord and clavichord on a published work. The German language practice of invention for foreign (non Germanic words), would bring up the example of the Hammer Clavier Sonata, Dedicated to his patron, the Archduke Rudolf, the sonata written primarily from the summer of 1817 to the late autumn of 1818, towards the end of a fallow period in Beethoven's compositional career. It represents the spectacular emergence of many of the themes that were to recur in Beethoven's late period: the reinvention of traditional forms, such as sonata form; a brusque humour; and a return to pre-classical compositional traditions, including an exploration of modal harmony and reinventions of the fugue within classical forms.

fascinating! I also would be interested in hearing early Beethoven sonatas on clavichord --

We all would probably be interested in any series you have the energy to produce! But that one sounds very interesting as clavichord is truly a wonderful instrument, and your Pathétique sonata really demonstrates the affectiveness of a clavichord. I don't know any piano rendition that comes even close to it.

I love to hear you talk about one of my favorite composers of all time.

Fascinating Wim. Of course I would love to hear more about Beethoven on the clavichord and understand what is the meaning of playing on the edge... Thank you so much.

Ha, I had that reaction to playing Mozart after only playing pre-Bach for just a year of studying with Professor Vogel. Mozart sounded so modern, and dissonant!

Thank you for this, and for your Beethoven performances, which I found today here on RU-vid. I have owned a clavichord since the 1970s, though for long stretches of time I would rarely play it - I was a busy church musician and mostly worked at the organ and piano. When I did play clavichord, it was only music of J. S. Bach and earlier. Now retired from the church, I have been learning some Haydn sonatas on the modern piano, and found that they also work well on the clavichord. . With Haydn, I thought that I was pushing the limits. But Beethoven sonatas? I don't think that I would have ever thought of them as possible on the clavichord before hearing your examples.

We will know we have found Beethoven's clavichord when we find the one that plays like greased lightning at 300 million beats per second.

Wonderful video. Thank you! And yes, please, a video on which Beethoven sonatas work on the clavichord would be great!

Wim, I pulled my copy of Maynard Salomon's wonderful bio on Beethoven from the bookshelf and had a look at the issue you raise about Beethoven playing a clavichord as late as 1825. Solomon does not come right out and say that he had the instrument or played on it. Instead if you read like I did, he focussed on what Beethoven was physically capable of doing in his last years. Eye witnesses talk about how awful it was to listen to Beethoven try to play a piano (I am assuming it was a big piano and not a clavichord or the like). They said that since he was so deaf he was not able to really play. Salomon also focusses on what types of composing Beethoven was doing in the last years. It is well known that after the massive choral works of the Missa Solemnis and Symphony 9 as well as the Hammerklavier were done, he moved more into quartets and bagatelles. Basically, I think it a bit far fetched that Beethoven would have had any motivation to play a clavichord in his last few years, mostly because his entire compositional focus was on the future and what sounds could be produced out of increasingly large instruments.

I don't think Beethoven went completely deaf; I think he could still hear a little bit. Imagine a synthesizer with most of the sound filtered off; you can still hear the notes and their harmonies, but without the same timbre

yay! A break from practicing for my piano jury that is today

Wim, I do not know if it is your clavichord or the way you play the clavichord, but I can assure you that I certainly can feel vibrations through the finger tips on a clavichord; it is part of the pleasure of playing the clavichord to feel directly in touch. I think it is important when using bebung, which I do notice that you do not seem to use so much. On a piano, there are also vibrations through the fingers, but it is not so direct, however I get more through my foot resting against the sustaining pedal. It all makes sense to me that Beethoven might have used the sense of vibrations after his ears had failed him. I think I read somewhere that Beethoven also used a stick held against the soundboard, but I cannot remember where that was from, so it could have simply been speculation.

Great one!

Fascinating!

Eberl is an awesome composer between mozart and beethoven, really between both in term of style

The answer is for me quite simple: it was not Ludwig's but Karl van Beethovens (the nephew!) clavichord. Ludwig wanted his nephew to follow in his footsteps and engaged Czerny as his teacher. Also Karl notices that the instrument is out of tune, not Ludwig v.B. who would, if he really could use the clavichord for composing... That's just my two cents...

I would certainly watch videos about sonatas!

I want to see the Beethoven sonatas on the piano forte

I enjoyed this very much, Wim & Anja. More Beethoven Sonatas on the clavichord would be interesting to me. I think I know what you hesitated to discuss in this video about “playing on the edge”... you simply meant that the clavichord has limitations in its response speed of the keys, due to the construction of its mechanism.... something that could be counteracted to some degree by embedding lead at the right place in the wood to give more weight to the keys, but is still not the only limitation to overcome, perhaps.

Beautiful, eye and ear-opening! Why not play Beethoven on the clavichord? Besides, it’s not like everyone rushed out to get the latest pianoforte when it became available. We just found out that the vinyl Pachelbel shipped, and we’re really anticipating it. Merry Christmas to you and your family!

What's the difference between Harpsichord, Clavichord, Fortepiano and Hammerklavier?

I beg you to make a video where you explain what "On the edge" means.

Articulation! As the piano developed it seems to have traded articulation for volume. Was it worth it? Sadly few people know any better.

Hmm...maybe composing and having his assistant, or an assist transcribe for him?...

Though I have only this DLA thesis and its quotations as source: e.bangor.ac.uk/4033/ I learned from it that Czerny was impressed by the _new_ playing thechnique that Beethoven invented. (Before, people played with straight fingers, and in fast tempi, non-legato. Beethoven invented the playing with curved fingers, new fingering orders where the thumb was very important in balancing and supporting the others, and could reach an unprecedented ease and velocity with this technique.) This was later propagated by Czerny, and this is how we play now. So, the Beethoven-technique was quite the first appropriate technique for the "Hammerklavier"! Also Czerny writes, as quoted in this Thesis, that Mozart for example, played very old-stylish in that era, with marked non legatos everywhere, and, as Czerny tells the impression about the Mozart contemporaries, there was a kind of grotesqueness in how Mozart played on modernish instruments, with the technique proper for early 18th century instruments. So, I am impressed that Beethoven still had a clavichord in 1825. But I think his oevrue is written for the that time modern instruments, the good old fortepianos, although they might be played in a clavichord. (There is similar, you can play Haydn and Mozart in modified meantone temperaments, because they did not compose for these temperaments, they still had it in their ears, and wrote what sounds good in those temperaments, too.) May be this was the case with Beethoven, he composed the early sonatas for fortepianos, but still hearing how it sounds in clavichords, harpsichords, and mostly wrote the music which is also meaningful on those instruments. Later he let this aspect go, and wrote fortepiano sonatas; but of course could compose in a clavichord when was not at home etc. Anyways, this finding is great and I am just impressed about it!

Regarding pedalling - have you read Eva & Paul Badura-Skoda’s revised edition of “Interpreting Mozart”? I am fascinated by their knowledge and beautiful writing in English (no doubt in large part due to the translator!).

Anyways, I more and more see two Viennese classicism, one is Haydn and Mozart, and a generation later, Beethoven and Schubert. Enought to take a look at their dates of birth and death! (And we can count the Bohemian and other masters of this era to a third classicism, at least.) But in this view, there is nothing surprising that Mozart and Beethoven is farther from each other in several aspects, than Mozart from CPE Bach for example.

Dear Wim: Let's get wildly crazy and let's play some Schelle... Just for fun ... Perhaps... ?

Could you give me the precise reference of the quotation, date and location of publication, the page, the author... I need to make a project

We don't have any evidence that Bach had access to many unfretted clavichords, and your 5-octave instrument is of the post-Bach style. Bach's students would mostly have had to practise on small fretted instruments. This suggests that the harpsichord or spinet was the instrument mostly used in Bach's home. I agree with you about the clavichord's use in later music, but you can also see the harpsichord being the instrument intended by Haydn for his sonatas, as late as at least the 1770s.

Do you have any videos about non keyboard music?

10:34 piece?

Could it be the nephew, or somebody else at the household, was the one playing?

Perhaps people complained about the piano being too loud at night so he would use the clavichord.

I suppose the people in Beethoven's household would have been the ones demanding the instrument be tuned. Any instrument that's out of tune is very annoying to hear.

But he was completely deaf in 1825, so why would he play any instrument?

😂wouldnt he break it?

well he sure as heck didn't compose for it lol

you can also play much more than lame bach and mozart, you can also play pop songs and hardstyle melody's..... everyone did bach and mozart before. its getting old..