CHRISTOPHER HOGWOOD

Christopher's contribution to the Mozart-Jahrbuch

Christopher’s essay Mozart and the Clavichord Environment was published in the Mozart-Jahrbuch 2005. Read on for the introduction to the essay.

Visitors to the Mozart Geburtshaus in Salzburg may read a note on the little clavichord standing against the wall: ‘On this Clavier’ Constanze writes ‘my late husband composed Die Zauberflöte, La Clemenza di Tito, the Requiem and a new Masonic Cantata in the space of five months.’ After glancing, perhaps in disbelief, at the tiny box, the visitors’ attention is likely to turn to the much larger fortepiano nearby.

‘Surely ... ?’ you might almost hear them thinking, before they pass on to other rooms.

Attention has always focused thus on the fortepiano — it was Mozart’s public instrument, the only one on which he gave lessons and today his name even defines the type (‘Mozart-piano’). But Mozart himself never received any tuition on the instrument, and the only keyboard that was with him at both the start and finish of his life was the clavichord. He is pictured with it in his earliest portrait (by P.A. Lorenzoni) and Constanze’s evidence cited above connects it with his last compositions. In fact, for Mozart — and classical musicians in general — the clavichord was in many situations the instrument of first choice, rather than last resort. Modern commentators clash headlong with the 18th-century evidence when they create a ‘pre-eminence’ of the piano at all costs.

This essay examines contemporary 18th-century evidence in favour of the clavichord, starting with an investigation of the different types of keyboard available to composers and performers in Mozart’s lifetime, encompassing situations in which the clavichord was regarded as the first choice instrument and others in which the choice of an appropriate instrument was more ambiguous. The presence of the clavichord in Mozart’s Salzburg is documented, using evidence from the instruments and the music library available to the composer. Mozart’s use of the clavichord as a travelling companion and an aid to composition is then described, and an account given of some important 18th-century critical commentaries on the instrument. Evidence from the use of the clavichord in teaching and competitive performance is surveyed. The article ends with an account of the clavichord environment after Mozart and a brief summary of possible Mozart repertoire, for the use of keyboard players today.

To learn more about the Mozart-Jahrbuch visit the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe website