Page "Clavichord" Paragraph 21

Much of the musical repertoire written for harpsichord and organ from the period circa 1400 – 1800 can be played on the clavichord ; however, it does not have enough ( unamplified ) volume to participate in chamber music, with the possible exception of providing accompaniment to a soft baroque flute, recorder, or single singer.

J. S. Bach's son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was a great proponent of the instrument, and most of his German contemporaries regarded it as a central keyboard instrument, for performing, teaching, composing and practicing.

The fretting of a clavichord provides new problems for some repertoire, but scholarship suggests that these problems are not insurmountable in Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier ().

Among recent clavichord recordings, those by Christopher Hogwood ( The Secret Bach, The Secret Handel, and, most recently, The Secret Mozart ), break new ground.

In his liner notes, Hogwood points out that these composers would typically have played the clavichord in the privacy of their homes.

The English composer Herbert Howells ( 1892 – 1983 ) wrote two significant collections of pieces for clavichord ( Lambert's Clavichord & Howells ' Clavichord ).