About the Clavichord
The Clavichord is an instrument that can easily be confused with the harpsichord; it has a similarly quiet, "tinny", and sometime spooky (slow pieces in minor keys may remind you of the Addams Family) sound.
This rare and beautiful keyboard instrument was a favorite of renaissance and barouque composers, as well as a popular practice instrument for organists (it's extremely quiet!), though it fell into relative obscurity starting around the early nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, its use and construction was revived by period music enthusiasts, and today the clavichord enjoys a popularity amongst keyboardists that it hasn't experienced in two hundred years. It's best known, perhaps, in the form of its electronic offspring, the Hohner Clavinet, which we all know to be one the funkyiest sounding instruments on record. See Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" for a well known example.
The clavichord is often referred to as the most intimate of keyboard instruments, mostly due to the fact that the player's fingers are more directly in contact with the strings; Each key is a simple lever which, when pressed, will raise its rear side, bringing a small brass blade (or "tangent") into contact with the string. The tangent both determines the sounding length of the string (it acts as a fret would on a guitar), and sets the string vibrating on impact. The string continues to sound as long as the tangent is held in contact, and stops with a characteristic "buzz", when the tangent releases the string back upon its felt damper. The most unique aspect of its construction is that it allows the player to rock his or her finger on a key, producing a vibrato effect, or "bebung"...poly aftertouch well before its time!
The Wavelore clavichord faithfully reproduces all the defining and unique capabilites of its acoustic namesake, while also adding certain capabilities. See the full feature list for details.