Soft, gentle sound gains popularity

Press, 26 November 1979, Page 6

Soft, gentle sound gains popularity

The soft, ethereal sound of! the earliest known keyboard, instrument, the clavichord, would appear to have little chance of breaking into the amplified modem world of music, but Joan Benson says the instrument is enjoying wide popularity. Ms Benson is largely responsible for a revival of the: clavichord in the United States in the last eight years. She is in Christchurch to present a concert of early music ranging from the fifteenth century.

“In the United States! things tend to be overblown and the sound of the clavichord impresses like an understatement. You feel the need for something quiet,” she says.

Describing the clavichord as “very much an individual-' ist instrument,” Ms Benson says the instrument is not an esoteric interest; it plays a part in the modern musical world in the United States and Europe. "There is always a nostalgia in going back, although I don’t regard it as going back at all. I just enjoy playing with the beautiful, soft sounds,” she says.

Gentle as the sound of the clavichord may be, players have not always been as gentle in their style as Ms Benson. Take, for instance, this description of one of the instrument’s greatest exponents. C. P. E. Bach (the fifth child of J. S. Bach).

While playing the clavichord “he grew so animated and possessed, that he not only played, but looked like one inspired. His eyes were fixed, his underlip fell, and drops of effervescence distilled from his countenance. He said if he were to be set to work frequently in this manner, he should grow young again.” C. P. E. Bach was 58 at the time, but his style is reminiscent of a rock guitarist. The comparison is not so far fetched, as Ms Benson explains: “The clavichord is rather like the modem guitar. It is very mobile — the smallest can be carried under the arm, and set up wherever the player wants.” Consequently, the clavi-

chord was ideal for small,! intimate gatherings, at which! the harp-like sounds could best be appreciated. Ms Benson believes there is a move towards intimacy in modern music, and a sensitivity to detail and soft sounds.

Audiences have had enough i of big, impersonal concerts and they prefer performances [in which they are close ; enough to feel they are par■ticipating, she says. A Christchurch audience will have an opportunity to experience this close rapport i with the performer in Ms I Benson’s concert at the American Centre, Ibis House, Hereford Street, this evening.

She will play on her own clavichord, built in 1976 by a Californian, Mr John Germer, who has specialised in producing early musical instruments. Clavichord strings

are tapped from below by small hammers (“tangents”),! distinguishing it from a| harpsichord, whose strings, are plucked. For this reason, the sounds are delicate and easily overwhelmed by , other instruments. Ms Benson teaches for half the year at the University of Oregon’s school of music. She holds master classes on the early piano and the clavichord, and she has taught most performers of these instruments in the United States.

For a quarter of the year, she performs in concerts, and her trip to New Zealand is part of a concert tour embracing Alaska, Hong Kong and Indonesia. From Christchurch, she hopes to walk the Milford Track and, “if I survive that,” she will play in Auckland before returning home.