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PORTATIVE ORGAN

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 111 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PORTATIVE See also:

ORGAN , a small See also:medieval organ carried by the performer, who manipulated the See also:bellows with one See also:hand and fingered the keys with the other. This small See also:instrument was necessarily made as See also:simple as possible. On a small rectangular See also:wind See also:chest or See also:reservoir, fed by means of a single bellows placed at the back, in front, or at the right See also:side, were arranged the pipes —one, two or three to a See also:note—supported by more or less ornamental uprights and an oblique See also:bar. The most See also:primitive See also:style of See also:keyboard consisted merely of sliders pushed in to make the note See also:sound and restored to their normal position by a See also:horn See also:spring; the See also:reverse See also:action was also in use, the keys being furnished with knobs or handles. Towards the See also:middle of the 13th See also:century the portatives represented in the miniatures of illuminated See also:MSS. first show signs of a real keyboard with balanced keys, as in the 13th century See also:Spanish MS., known as the Cantigas de See also:Santa Maria,' containing four full pages of miniatures of instrumentalists, fifty-one in number. From the position of the performer's thumb it is evident that the keys are pressed down to make the notes sound. There are nine pipes and the same number of keys, sufficient for the diatonic See also:octave of C See also:major with the B See also:flat added. The pipes put into these small See also:organs were flue pipes, their intonation must have been very unstable owing to the irregularity of the wind See also:supply fed by a single bellows, the pressure being at the See also:mercy of the performer's hand. Increased pressure in pipes with fixed mouthpieces, such as organ pipes, produces a rise in See also:pitch. These medieval portative organs, so extensively used during the 14th and 15th centuries, were revivals of those used by the See also:Romans, of which a specimen excavated at See also:Pompeii in 1876 is preserved in the Museum at See also:Naples. The See also:case See also:measures 141 in. by 91 in. and contains nine pipes, of which the longest measures but 94 in.; six of the pipes have oblong holes at a See also:short distance from the See also:top similar to those made in gamba pipes of See also:modern organs to give them their reedy quality, and also to those cut in the See also:bamboo pipes of the See also:Chinese See also:Cheng, which is a primitive organ furnished with See also:free reeds. From the description of these remains by C.

F. Abdy See also:

Williams,' it would seem that a See also:bronze See also:plate 111 in. by 24 in. having 18 rectangular slits arranged in three rows to See also:form vandykes was found inside the case, with three little plates of bronze just wide enough to pass through the slits lying by it ; this plate possibly formed See also:part of the mechanism for the sliders of the keys. The small instrument often taken for a See also:syrinx on a contorniate of See also:Sallust in the See also:Cabinet Imperial de See also:France in See also:Paris may be meant for a See also:miniature portative. (K.

End of Article: PORTATIVE ORGAN

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