And none of those old rooms had ventilation blowers raising the ambient noise.
A few years back, I sat in the back row of the Chicago Lyric Opera when a handful of singers and a tiny pit orchestra, with unamplified harpsichord, performing Handel's Giulio Cesare. From that vantage point, it was very soft.
That old room fortunately has an inaudible ventilation system.
We all listened carefully and were transfixed for three hours.
Bruce
On 4/15/17, 11:45 AM, "Harpsichords and Related Topics on behalf of George Debono" <[log in to unmask] on behalf of [log in to unmask]> wrote:
I am not sure if I agree with your comment about "rooms in which people
gathered (especially in homes) to listen to clavichord music were much
smaller than then they are today. "
Many houses of the well-to-do had quite large rooms and there were also
chapels and small churches where recitals may have taken place.
My clavichords have been used for recitals in a medium-sized church with a
high domed ceiling , and even slighly deaf people were amazed how they
could hear the sound so distinctly.
Regards
George
On Sat, Apr 15, 2017 at 2:30 PM, Tom Roach <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I recall reading, in a history of the instrument, that when the clavichord
> was developed, the rooms in which people gathered (especially in homes)
> were much smaller than then they are today. Hence the volume of the
> instrument was of lesser importance than it is today because, small numbers
> of people did indeed stand or sit around the instrument to hear it played.
>
> Tom Roach
> Waterloo
> Ontario
> 519 746 5324
>
> On 2017-04-15 07:43, Philip Kimber wrote:
>
>> In answer to David Pickett's comment about the difficulty of listening to
>> clavichord recordings because of the volume problem, I suppose the only
>> solution is to play oneself or for a small audience to gather round the
>> player at the instrument in real life. But there are almost no opporunities
>> to do the latter.
>>
>>
>
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