The Shed – September-October 2019

basic of keyboard instruments and was
what the early composers used before
the harpsichord and later the piano
were invented. I really liked its delicate
and expressive sound, its simplicity, and
its portability, and decided I must have
one — but as a poor student I couldn’t
afford one.
At the time I lived in London and there
were one or two makers in the region.
I visited them to get some idea of the
challenge ahead, and I looked at the few
examples in the museums in London.
I had seen Mozart’s clavichord in
his birth house in Salzburg. Of course
looking closely was not possible
and touching was completely out of
the question!
There were a couple of makers who
produced kitsets but apart from being
ex pensive, I didn’t li ke t hem a nd couldn’t
afford them anyway. Well, the original
makers would have had nothing to go
on except their own ideas, so I decided
to work it out myself as they must
have done.
The basic concept is pretty simple, as
you can now discover on the internet
(which, of course, didn’t exist then).

Learning the hard way

My mother decided to throw out an

inherited upright piano which was full

of woodworm. The keys were unaffected

and I thought if I rescued them it would

make a great start for my clavichord.

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and learning opportunities.

Looking at compositions by Bach

and Mozart I decided on just over four

octaves, C to E, and rescued those f

Some of the glues had

failed and a major

part had warped. I

decided to rescue it, so

brought it home and

restored it

CAPTIVATED BY THE DISTINCTIVE

TONE OF A CLAVICHORD, A

SHEDDIE EMBARKS ON MAKING

HIS OWN INSTRUMENT

By Emil Nye

Photographs: Emil Nye

Left; The original encased in 2015
Right: A typical clavichord

The original clavicord as built in 1963

A ‘fretted’ (bunden) clavichord