Pedal Clavichords: The Historical Evidence

At least by the fifteenth century, the pedal clavichord was already being used as a practice instrument for the organ with pedals. Because fairly few historical examples survive and none of them are in their original playing condition, it has been easy to ignore the full extent of the tradition of these instruments that once existed in central and northern Europe. There are a number of surviving instruments that still have, or once had pedals, all dating from the eighteenth century.

Extant Historical Pedal Clavichords

Although the written evidence, presented below, shows that the pedal clavichord was found all over central and northern Europe, only German and Swedish examples survive. As with an evaluation of any collection of historical instruments, some questions of methodology arise. In the following inventory, there are three different categories of instruments: 1) instruments presumed to be near their original state, 2) instruments which are no longer pedal clavichords but show obvious traces of having been at one stage, and, 3) instruments for which we now have only documentation.

How do we tell that the instrument is in its original condition, and if not, how do we judge what kinds of changes have been made to it? For the pull-down pedal instruments missing their pedals, all that can be said for certain is that the instruments had pedalboards at some point during their working lives. If an instrument is part of a museum collection it may have a written record of any restorations or changes made to it, and careful examination can reveal modifications of various kinds. For instance, if the layout of a clavichord has been radically altered, as on the Wolthersson discussed below, the tangents will also have to be moved, and this leaves a pattern of holes that can be used to try to reconstruct the original position of the tangents and thus the strings.