The clavier is a generic name for stringed keyboard instruments that was used in the 17th-18th centuries. It is an abbreviated version of the German word "claviraussug".
Music
Translated from French, the clavier is “keyboard”. This term was actively used in Germany, as well as in countries that were under the cultural influence of this country - Sweden, Denmark, Poland, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria. The clavier is the general name of an organ, piano, harpsichord, clavichord, as well as their varieties.
Modification
Change came in the 18th century. From this moment on, the clavier is the term by which only the piano is called. One of the modern words is derived from this meaning. It sounds like a “keyboard player”. This term refers to an authentic musician who plays an old piano. The word “clavirauszug” refers to the arrangement of scores of vocal and orchestral works for piano - oratorios, operas, concerts, symphonies. The term that interests us is used not only in music, for example, the so-called municipality of the province of Liege in Belgium.
Bach Concerto for Clavier - Solo
The composer wrote his works for harpsichord. Most often, such works are performed today on the piano. The first known “Italian” concert for clavier is BWV 971. It is performed without an orchestra. The approximate time for writing clavier concerts is in the thirties of the 18th century. Bach since 1729 was the head of the Musical Student Society at
the University of Leipzig. He participated in concerts of Collegium musicum as a soloist and conductor. For these performances, works were created for four, three, two and one harpsichord. Most of these works are copyright revisions of previously written works for other tools. Of the original versions that were created in Kothen around 1720, only a few have survived. Among music critics, there is an opinion that the original versions of some concerts were not written by Bach, but by someone from the composer's contemporaries. However, this assumption is considered unlikely. The content of the music of the concerts, the developmental techniques, the nature of the theme and the structural layout convincingly and vividly indicate that they belong to the Bach pen.
Another confirmation is the use of some parts of these works as separate numbers in cantatas. Carrying out transcriptions of his violin works for clavier, the composer, as a rule, used an almost literal transference.