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POSITIVE (or PORTABLE) ORGAN

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 172 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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POSITIVE (or PORTABLE) See also:ORGAN , a See also:medieval chamber organ which could be carried from See also:place to place without being taken to pieces, and when played was placed on a table or See also:stool and required a blower for the See also:bellows, as well as a performer. It was larger and more cumbersome than the portative (q.v.), with which it has often been confounded. The positive had usually but one See also:kind of See also:pipe, the open See also:diapason of 2 ft. See also:tone, and in the 16th See also:century the best typos had three registers by means of which each See also:note could be sounded with its fifth and See also:octave, or each by itself, or again in combinations of twos. The positive differed from the See also:regal in having flue pipes, whereas the latter had beating reeds in tiny pipes, one or two inches See also:long, concealed behind the See also:keyboard. During the See also:early See also:middle ages most of the pneumatic See also:organs belonged to this type. A well-known instance of an early positive or portable organ of the 4th century occurs on the See also:obelisk erected to the memory of See also:Theodosius the See also:Great, on his See also:death in A.D. 395. Among the illuminated See also:manuscripts of the See also:British Museum miniatures abound representing interesting varieties of the portable organ of the middle ages; such as Add. MS. 29902 (fol. 6) and Add. MS.

27695b (fol. 13), See also:

Cotton MS. Tiberius A VII. fol. Io4d., all of the 14th century, Add. MS. 28962, Add. MS. 17280, both of the 15th century. These little organs were to be found at every kind of See also:function, See also:civil and religious; they were used in the dwellings and chapels of the See also:rich; at banquets and See also:court functions; in choirs and See also:music See also:schools; and in the small orchestras of See also:Peri and Monteverdi at the See also:dawn of the musical See also:drama or See also:opera. (K.

End of Article: POSITIVE (or PORTABLE) ORGAN

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