SILBERMANN 1775 (© M. CHIARAMIDA 2015)
My Clavichords
ORIGINAL INSTRUMENT
The instrument is kept in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum under inventory no. MIR 1061. It is attributed to the manufacturer Johann Heinrich Silbermann, and is dated 1775.
It is part of a group of five instruments that are all attributed to the same manufacturer, owing to the fact that they have very similar characteristics:
1. unfretted instrument
2. keyboard extension: FF-f3
3. measures set on an Anglo-Saxon unit of measurement
The Germanische Nationalmuseum produced the drawings on which the construction of the copy was based.
case
dimensions in cm. 135.5 x 47.8 x 10.5
Made from Canadian poplar wood and finished in red enamel.
Hitch-pin block and wrestplanck in beech wood
Buttresses in fir wood
keyboard
Extension: FF – f3 (61 keys)
Key levers in lime wood
Diatonic keys covered in olive
Chromatic keys covered in cherry
soundboard
In red spruce from the Val di Fiemme
bridge
In maple wood and shaped by hand
Stringing
61 choirs of strings (two strings per choir) of various diameters
The first 20 strings (FF – c) are “covered” with copper wire of various diameters and with open spirals of varying density (over-wound strings)
pitch a1 = 430 Hz