This Friday night, Concora presents a concert featuring keyboard music from the time of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Although Bach is primary associated with the organ and the harpsichord, he had a variety of keyboard instruments at his disposal, like the clavichord and the lautenwerk. Bach even tried his hand at an early version of the piano.
"The organ building company Silberman built some what we call today fortepianos, but these were instruments that were still basically harpsichords with a different mechanism for playing the strings," said Edward Clark, who teaches organ and harpsichord at the University of Hartford's Hartt School. "[They had] a hammer hit the strings rather than a quill pluck the strings. Bach wasn't too happy with the first samples of the fortepiano. Had he lived ten years longer, he would have been much more satisfied with the product."
Clark has amassed an impressive keyboard collection that includes two harpsichords, a clavichord, a small portative organ, a larger organ, and a lautenwerk.
Clark said he has to adjust his playing technique for each instrument, like creating a vibrato effect on the the clavichord. "So if I play a note and move the string up and down while I am holding it, I can create vibrato," he said, adding that the clavichord was mainly used as a practice instrument in Bach's time.
Clark will bravely transport these instruments to Hartford's Trinity Episcopal Church for Concora's annual Bach ClavierFest this Friday night at 7:30 pm. For more information, visit concora.org.
