Tonal quality of the clavichord : the effect of sympathetic strings

Christophe d'Alessandro (1) , Brian F. G. Katz (1, 2)

1 LIMSI - Laboratoire d'Informatique pour la Mécanique et les Sciences de l'Ingénieur
2 AA - Audio et Acoustique

In the clavichord, unlike the piano, the slanting strings between the bridge and the hitch pins are not damped with felt. The effect of these "sympathetic strings" on the tonal quality of the clavichord has been studied. The instrument studied is based on an unfretted XVIII th century south German clavichord. Impulse responses of the soundboard have been recorded under all the combinations of damping of the strings between bridge and hitch-pins, damping of the played strings, and damping of the soundboard cavity. Individual tones and music have also been recorded under the various conditions. Impulses responses have been analyzed using the rate of amplitude decay in octave bands. Individual tones and music segments have been analyzed in time and frequency domains. The results show a significant effect of the sympathetic strings on the tonal quality of the instrument: sound duration is significantly increased and the spectrum is enhanced. This is well known by clavichord makers, and sympathetic strings have always been meticulously adjusted by makers of the finest instruments. The effect of the sympathetic strings is comparable to artificial reverberation. However, the type of reverberation introduced by sympathetic strings shows a specific decay pattern that does not correspond to a simple room acoustic.

Domaines: Acoustique [physics.class-ph]; Acoustique [physics.class-ph]

Christophe d'Alessandro, Brian F. G. Katz. Tonal quality of the clavichord : the effect of sympathetic strings. Intl Symp on Musical Acoustics (ISMA), 2004, Nara, Unknown Region. pp.21--24. ⟨hal-01789802⟩