In a broad sense, we could say that when they came into being, the musical instruments of Western antiquity were all onomastically órgana, but while each of them later took on a more specific name, the generic definition of organum ended up identifying a single, complex instrument, consisting of at least the following components: a) phonic apparatus (set of reeds); b) air feeder (bellows); c) air reservoir (somiere); d) keyboard; and e) case.
We have already discussed in a previous article, which you can find here, the genesis of the Pipe Organ. a veritable propaganda tool not only of supremacy in the arts but, also, in the technological field first Egyptian and, then, Roman.
The shift of the political center of the empire, from Rome to Constantinople (4th cent.), 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 then on, it was counted among the instruments of the Middle Ages until it reached a position of first rank in the liturgical functions (Guillaume de Machaut called it “king of instruments”) of the Christian church.
Regarding the constructional particularities of the medieval organ we have news from a treatise on organology by Henri Arnault of Zwolle, written 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 again of large organs (the one in St. Peter’s Church in Winchester, around 950, had as many as four hundred pipes), but especially of small organs called portative organs.
By the definition of portative organ, therefore, we mean to refer to instruments, of very small dimensions, composed of a rectangular box in which pipes of different heights were housed, in single or double rows; such a box could be carried over the shoulder or it could be placed on the knees of the seated player who, with his left hand, operated a wedge-shaped bellows placed on the back of the same box and, with his right hand, could act on a tiny keyboard.
The extreme maneuverability made this instrument widely used in the musical practice of the Middle Ages as it allowed not only the performance of melodies, but the simultaneous realization of a bordone, as a fixed pedal of a single note, or an accompaniment of singing (or another melodic instrument) with chords (usually of only two notes).
From the point of view of construction, we can say that the medieval portative organ was not overly extensive as, at that time, we referred to the “Octoechos Modes”
To stay on topic, it will be necessary to point out that the medieval keyboard was not like the ones we usually consider on the instruments we know (organ, harpsichord, and piano) and dates back to the Renaissance. In the Middle Ages, what we now call keys were at first real levers, later a kind of buttons or small wooden parallelepipeds glued on sticks (called pyrones) that acted by pressing directly on the ventilabra.
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The pipes were made from various durable materials (lead, copper, wood), but also from easily perishable materials (starched cloth or glued cardboard). We do not know then whether they were all open or, especially the wooden ones, capped, and for their tuning, going along with the theory of the time, we certainly referred to the Pythagorean one.
Another consideration we derive from the observation of musical iconography concerns images of the medieval accordion associated with the “concert of bells” (Rota tintinnabulis). This fact would lead us to identify a further, probable use of the instrument thus conceived: the player (organedus) performed the melody with the concert of bells, making the accompaniment with the accordion.
We could not conclude this overview of ours without mentioning that the portative organ was also called by the appellation “ninfale” (in Venice “rigabello” and “torsello”) and that it found its widest diffusion at the time of the Ars nova.
The greatest exponent of organ art, in 14th-century Italy, was Francesco Landini (1325 – ca. 1397) nicknamed “the blind man of organs” and “Francesco dell’organetto.” In images of him, Landini is precisely 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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Organo portativo (focus)
The portative organ, also called organetto, is a small organ, although structurally similar to larger instruments. It was most popular in the 13th-15th centuries in Europe, where it was used in polyphonic music to perform (alone or together with voices) the high-pitched parts (superius).
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As the name implies, it is a transportable instrument that can be played without the need for stable support, unlike the positive organ: iconography suggests that it was usually rested 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 somiere carries a variable number of pipes (usually about two octaves) arranged in several rows; it sometimes has one or two larger pipes that are used as a bordone. 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 reed per note, so registers are absent. The reeds may be made of tin, lead or metal alloy, wood or even cardboard.
Unlike larger organs, in which the air pressure is kept constant by a weight (usually a block of stone) placed on the bellows table, and the person operating the bellows has only the task of lifting it when it is about to empty, in the portative organ the bellows does not have a weight on the table: the bellows itself is usually 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 (consistent with the effects of pressure variation on pipe intonation), such as might be achieved in a wind instrument. Several composers 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. Moreover, the portable organ (another term by which it was called in Italy) often appears in Italian and Flemish paintings of the 15th century, where they appeared, for example, in choirs of angels. Allegorical depictions of Music (as a liberal art) also often feature the portative organ.
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Given the scarcity of specimens superseded by the medieval period, the study digrading the instruments is based almost exclusively on the iconographies and quotations that appear in the various manuscripts that have come down to us. The organ is presented with a keyboard connected to pipes from which the sound comes out. Basically, it was portative, meaning that it could be easily transported, small in size and with an extension 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 order of Gottifredo, bishop of Brescia, son of Count Attone, husband of Hildegard, who were married in the fortress of Canossa (Alberto Miliolo, scriba publicus of the city of Reggio from 1265 to 1273, information found in his "liber de temporibus et aetatibus")
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