In a broad sense we could say that, when they were born, the musical instruments of western antiquity were all onomastically organ, but while each of them then assumed a more specific name, the generic definition of organum ended up identifying a single and complex tool, made up of at least the following components: a) phonic apparatus (series of rods); b) air feeder (bellows); c) air tank (chest); d) keyboard; And) earnings.
We have already talked about in a previous article, that you find hereof the genesis of the pipe organ. real propaganda tool not only of supremacy in the arts but also in the technological sector first Egyptian and then Roman.
The shift of the political center of the empire, from Rome to Constantinople (4th century), caused the instrument to disappear from the West, which reappeared in the Carolingian age (first with Pepin the Short and then with Charlemagne) and, from that moment on then, it was numbered among the instruments of the Middle Ages until it reached a position of first rank in liturgical functions (Guillaume de Machaut called it “King of Tools”) of the Christian church.
With regard to the constructive peculiarities of the medieval organ we have information from a treatise on organology by Henri Arnault of Zwolle, drawn up in 1440 and preserved in the National Library in Paris. We also know of the existence of palace organs, as well as church organs and still large organs (that of the church of S. Pietro in Winchester, around 950, had as many as four hundred pipes), but above all small organs named dimensions bearing organs.
With the definition of portable organ we therefore intend to refer to instruments, of very small dimensions, composed of a rectangular box in which pipes of different heights were housed, in a single or double row; this cassette could be carried over the shoulder or it could be placed on the knees of the seated player who, with the left hand, operated a wedge-shaped bellows placed on the back of the cassette itself and, with the right hand, could operate a tiny keyboard.
The extreme ease of handling meant that this instrument was widely used in musical practice in the Middle Ages as it allowed not only the execution of melodies, but the contemporary creation of a drone, as a fixed pedal of a single note, or an accompaniment of the song (or other melodic instrument) with chords (generally of only two notes).
From a constructive point of view, we can say that the medieval portative organ was not excessively extensive since, at that time, we were referring to “Modes of the Octoechos”
To stay on topic, it will be necessary to clarify that the medieval keyboard was not like the one we usually consider on the instruments we know (organ, harpsichord and piano) and that it dates back to the Renaissance. In the Middle Ages, what we now call buttons were initially real levers, later a sort of button or small wooden parallelepiped glued onto sticks (called pyrons) which acted by pressing directly on the fans.
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The pipes were made with various durable materials (lead, copper, wood), but also with easily perishable materials (starched canvas or glued cardboard). We don't know if they were all open or, especially the wooden ones, plugged and for their tuning, according to the theory of the time, we were certainly referring to the Pythagorean one.
Another consideration that we derive from the observation of musical iconography concerns images of the medieval accordion associated with the "bell concert" (Rota tintinnabulis). This fact would lead us to identify a further, probable use of the instrument thus conceived: the player (organedus) he performed the melody with the concert of bells, making the accompaniment with the accordion.
We could not conclude our overview without saying that theportable organ was also called by the name of "nymphal" (to Venice “rigabello” And “torsello”) and which found its widest diffusion at the time of theArs nova.
Francesco Landini (1325 – ca. 1397) was the greatest exponent of organ art in fourteenth-century Italy, nicknamed “the blind man of organs” And “Francesco dell'organetto”. In the images that concern him, Landini is depicted in the act of playing his inseparable portative both in the Squarcialupi Codex and on the tombstone in the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence.
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Portable organ (focus)
The portable organ, also called accordion, is a small organ, even if structurally analogous to the larger instruments. It had its maximum diffusion in the XIII-XV centuries in Europe, where it was used in polyphonic music, to perform (alone or together with the voices) the high parts (superius).
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As the name suggests, it is a transportable instrument that can be played without the need for a stable support, unlike the positive organ: the iconography suggests that it was generally supported on the left knee. The portative organ is not played with both hands, but with only one, the right, while the left is responsible for operating the bellows. The windchest carries a variable number of pipes (generally around two octaves) arranged in several rows; sometimes it has one or two larger pipes which are used as staffs. The oldest iconographic sources often show keys in the shape of buttons; sometimes not all the notes of the chromatic scale were present. The instrument generally has only one pipe per note, so there are no stops. The pipes can be made of tin, lead or metal alloy, of wood or even of cardboard.
Unlike the larger organs, in which the air pressure is kept constant by a weight (generally a block of stone) placed on the table of the bellows, and whoever operates the bellows has only the task of lifting it when it is about to empty, in the portable organ the bellows do not have a weight on the table: the bellows themselves are generally placed vertically, and it is the player who determines the air pressure with his left hand. This allows small variations in sound intensity for expressive purposes (compatibly with the effects of the pressure variation on the intonation of the pipes), as could be obtained in a wind instrument. There were several composers who were depicted playing this type of instrument, such as Francesco Landini (whom some sources of the time consider the initiator of the practice of accompanying the voice with the organ) and Guillaume Dufay. Furthermore, the portable organ (another term by which it was called in Italy) often appears in Italian and Flemish paintings of the fifteenth century, where they appeared, for example, in choirs of angels. Even allegorical depictions of Music (as a liberal art) often feature a portative organ.
PORTATIVE ORGAN, rarity in rarity.
Given the scarcity of specimens surviving from the Middle Ages, the degrading study of the instruments is based almost exclusively on the iconography and on the quotations that appear in the various manuscripts that have come down to us.
The organ is equipped with a keyboard connected to pipes from which the sound comes out.
Basically it was portative, that is to say that it could be easily transported, small in size and with a range of 21 sounds, deriving from the fact that it had to be able to perform all the ecclesiastical modes.
We know that one of the first organs in Italy was built on the orders of Gottifredo, bishop of Brescia, son of Count Attone, husband of Ildegarda, who married in the fortress of Canossa (Alberto Miliolo, scribe publicus of the city of Reggio from 1265 to 1273, news that is found in his "liber de temporibus et aetatibus")
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