The claviorganum

Claviorganum: Joseph Böhm, Vienna c1830; private collection

No two claviorgana are alike each other: This typical Vienesse grand of the late 1820s has a single organ rank flute 4'. the windchest is visible under the keyboard.

The claviorganum is a combination of organ and string keyboard, a dream for centuries like the bowed keyboards. During the renaissance, especially in the late 16th century these claviorgan usually consisted of a combination of harpsichord (spinet/virginal) with a small organ of two to maybe five stops, and grew rather popular and still extant since many of these luxurious instruments of complicated technical construction almost predestined these for a  cabinet of wonders. Very few were in working order for long; the maybe oldest still in playing condition is the claviorganum by Josua Pockh of 1591 now in Salzburg. It is made of a spinet combined with two pipe ranks underneath Regal 8’ and Flöte (stopped) 4’. These sorts of ranks (reeds with short bodies, stopped ranks) were first choices since they were most easily placed within the frame of another instrument.

Interest in this sort of instruments grew again in the late 18th century when further opportunities were explored to make keyboard instruments more expressive. The strings part usually consisted of a harpsichord or a piano, usually a grand, the organ part - usually stopped ranks - could be placed underneath, often in horizontal position depending on overall size.  Oran an strings sounds combined should enable a player to hold long notes properly, enforce a melody line, and move the hearts of the listeners by the charming union of sounds. So the sort of organ stops chosen for such an instrument should have a chamber music sound quality with little resemblance to church organs. In the 19th century another idea appeared: to unite piano and harmonium.

All claviorgana whatever the components had one problem which could not be solved: the stablity of tuning. Tuning strings and organ pipes together is a challenge as such, but when the weather changed, their pitches react in different ways since they alter in different directions when temperature rises or falls; if the pitch of the strings went up, the pitch of the organ pipes went down and vice versa. Tuning a claviorganum only kept on one level until weather changed, and what sounded in pitch well together on a warm summer day could be hardly tolerable at night. Of all "weather-sensitive" instruments the claviorganum combined almost all negative effects to an extreme. Nonetheless those instruments still  can be fascinating as technical masterworks as well as instruments with almost endless musical properties.

 
 
 

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