The "Bebung" on clavichord: a personal view:: Q&A ep. 9
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- Опубликовано: 4 фев 2025
- The 'Bebung' or 'Vibrato' (if I translate correct) is one of the most legendary elements that many associate with the clavichord. The ultimate goal probably to come as close to the human voice with keyboard instruments.
People have wondered often why I seem not to use it that often.
But is that actually so? Curious to hear my personal approach to this wonderful feature? Just start the video to start and you'll find out!
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Many thanks for explaining the effect of ' Bebung ' - it was most instructive to actually hear the sound effect and see the tangent action at the same time .
Glad you liked it, there are more videos like this on its way .
The funny thing about the bebung sound is that it reminds me of the sound of the Chinese guzheng and the Japanese koto. That is not the only similarity: all three instruments were considered an instrument for the well educated in their own culture. I wonder if any modern clavichord player has ever tried his hand at playing a clasical Chinese or Japanese melody on a clavichord ? That would produce some very interesting music.
Now I wish I had a clavichord, that would be so amazing to do!
Wim, I just got my notification on your playing of the Erard, I'll check them out at once.
No Bebung there, David, but all jokes apart, if I now play on the Erard, it feels 'hard' to my fingers in a sense that I really miss in the beginning that sweet contact with the strings. But honestly, I actually never play it... it is really hard to combine with the clavichord. I feel my clavichord touch going down considerable when I play the Erard for one day, so I'm as well affraid of playing it too often. The pianoforte probably will have a touch closer to the clavichord (in lightness, not in contact with the string of course)
I agree with you. Bebung can be seriously overdone to the detriment of the music being played. It is about being subtle and adding shades of colour without it being too obvious what is being done. Obviously this requires good control of the fingers and is what makes a good clavichord player.
Wim, I agree with you about that. I use a kind of Bebung very often, to stress and/or color notes. Question is, if every little stretching of the intonation of a note is a Bebung - but I don't care. :) Best, Jan
4:33 I believe the word you're looking for is "acme" as in, "bebung is the acme of the clavichord's expression".
Thanks for the addition !
great points. the fact that the clavichord held its place for that long especially due to vibrato makes total sense. maybe also because it's simpler and cheaper to produce than other keyboard instruments of the time?
Thanks, glad you liked it! You are right in a sense that many clavichords were considerable cheaper than average, although they are prices known of bigger, unfretted instruments that were really surprisingly expensive, and not due to the casework. Joris Potvlieghe has done some research to that. It must have been in the 18th c. the same as in our times, that a good clavichord costed its money. In sources, you often read that this and this sound so and so on a 'good' clavichord, making the clear distinction with the rest of the available (and presumably cheap) instruments. It's how I can imagine it was, it would be hard for me to 'proof' this directly with one quote.
Thanks for this important vid. and explanation. There are various ways of expression on clavier-instruments, but those on which the player can express his thoughts and emotions directly by the (various kinds and gradations of) touch of his fingers on the keys - they are the best in my opinion, and they kind of 'shifting the responsibility' from the instrument and the composer towards the performer. Maybe in a non-direct way, the historical process of split between composer and performer was influenced by this instrument: the clavichord (as opposed to earlier era when the two of them where actually one person?)?
i have an issue with one of the tangents on my clavichord.....it only appeared now that i started to apply bebung, but also at about the same time i began to use a humidifier to counteract dry weather, so i'm not sure exactly what might be responsible.....it will now often miss one of the strings it was meant to play after a moment of playing it....as if the string slides past the tangent or something. Obviously it isn't aligned perfectly in some way but i wonder how this might have happened since it was fine until that point
To all, please forgive my typos. My vision is temporarily very bad and I cannot see the letters to differentiate an h from an n...
Thank you David, for the nice comments, I really appreciate!
best,
Wim
I am searching for where you cited E. Bach, "lift the note" over the syncopation -- 6'39" in the video, you reference it -- can you help please? I would like to read more contemporary source material on this issue, specifically bebung & expression of syncopation. Looking into Beethoven and bebung. Thank you!
I would have to search that quote now, from memory, he speaks if I'm not wrong from "bleeding" the note, my guess is it must be somewhere in one of the introductions but I'm not sure
4:07
Oh Wim, now you've opened the "can of worms" as we say in America. Think of it this way: what was the first musical instrument made available to the human race?
Hmmm?..... The voice of course.
I dare you to try to sing without a vibrato. I have done professional Gregorian chant in very acoustically active cathedrals where every last bit of sound was heard by everyohe. In these settings, the goal was for the ensemble singing chant to remain very much in unison and to produce zero, absolutely zero vibrato. The vibrato would have disrupted the texture of the chant.
That said, it is only natural to assume that all human ears are insistantly looking for that warmth and texture created by the vibrato of the human voice. One argues that the harpsichord, organ and piano lack these qualities but I beg to differ. The great disparity over how these instruments should be tuned was an issue over vibrato. I'll grant that an organ can have vibrato added with a celeste rank or a tremulant - I'm not meaning that. Even the piano has vibrato.
How vibrato works in these instruments now that equal temperament is the norm is for composers to be conscious of the intervals they employ in their compositions. Certain intervals (4th, 5th, octave) are so slow that they really cannot be heard except at the top of the 8' range of a 61 note keyboard. Pianos can bring on a little vibrato out of these intervals in the traditional melody ranges but that is secondary.
We hear vibrato best in instruments not equipped with vibrato inducing methods by the use of the M3rd & m3rd, and the M6th & m6th in the mid to low ends of the instruments. Even these get too fast to quite work like proper vibrato once you pass into the octave above middle c.
I also enjoy and hear very nice vibrato at the very bottom of the piano keyboard when m7ths are played. This interval is usually considered too dissonant to be used but it can actually produce a lovely vibrato.
I believe you do well to imply discrete sprinkles of Bebung to your work in ways that give the human ear that relaxing effect that the natural vibrato of the voice imparts. But, if you've ever heard a soprano who lost control of her vibrato twenty years ago, singing in church, the what I call "machine gun" vibrato produced is obvio9usly ugly. This is the sort of Bebung originally used at the re-advent of the clavichord and is well left behind.
Good points. An enjoyable discussion. But Wim! I've got to hear that Erard. It's huge and I want one like it from about 1830! I'll even pay for shipping!
Hi, David, very nice to read you again, and appreciate so much, knowing that your sight is so bad at the moment. Keep strong! You are right concering the human voice, I should have said that I was talking about keyboard instruments only. The Bebung is different than the vibratos you hear due to intervals combination, that I would call in my Eurospeak more vibrations. It is really shifting the pitch while playing, but if you do it in 1000 different gradations, one hardly notice the shift in pitch, only 'feels' its expressive element.