A portative organ (from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

verb , "to carry"), also known during Italian Trecento as the , is a small

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

that consists of one rank of

flue pipe A flue pipe (also referred to as a ''labial'' pipe) is an organ pipe that produces sound through the vibration of air molecules, in the same manner as a recorder or a whistle, in a pipe organ. Air under pressure (called ''wind'') is driven ...

s, sometimes arranged in two rows, to be played while strapped to the performer at a right angle. The performer manipulates the

bellows A bellows or pair of bellows is a device constructed to furnish a strong blast of air. The simplest type consists of a flexible bag comprising a pair of rigid boards with handles joined by flexible leather sides enclosing an approximately airtig ...

with one hand and fingers the keys with the other. The portative organ lacks a reservoir to retain a supply of wind and so it produces sound only while the bellows are being operated. The instrument was commonly used in European secular music from the 12th to the 16th centuries. The Italian composer Francesco Landini is known to have played the instrument. There are performers on the instrument again as a result of the

Early Music Revival An early music revival is a renewed interest in music from ancient history or prehistory. The general discussion of how to perform music from ancient or earlier times did not become an important subject of interest until the 19th century, when Eu ...

. Some contemporary music has been written for it, for example by José María Sánchez-Verdú. Dolly Collins also used it in modern English folk music.

Terminology

The portative organ is also called a portatif organ, portativ organ, or simply portative, portatif, or portativ.

Construction

The portative is constructed simply in order to make it as portable as possible. The pipes are arranged on a small rectangular windchest and supplied with wind by one or two bellows placed at the back, or under the instrument. The row of pipes is supported by posts at either end and an oblique bar. The earlier style of keyboard on the portative consists of one button for each pipe. When a button is pushed in, the corresponding pipe sounds. The button is restored to its normal position by a horn spring.

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

instruments use keyboards similar to Renaissance harpsichords.

Definitions

In principle, the portative is a smaller instrument than the

positive organ A positive organ (also positiv organ, positif organ, portable organ, chair organ, or simply positive, positiv, positif, or chair) (from the Latin verb ''ponere'', "to place") is a small, usually one-manual, pipe organ that is built to be more o ...

, which features more ranks of pipes and a larger keyboard. The portative also should not be confused with the regal, a small keyboard instrument that contains a rank of short-length

reed pipe A reed pipe (also referred to as a ''lingual'' pipe) is an organ pipe that is sounded by a vibrating brass strip known as a '' reed''. Air under pressure (referred to as ''wind'') is directed towards the reed, which vibrates at a specific pit ...

s instead of flue pipes. In practice, however, since the organ reform movement revival of small organs, also small positives with a bass register and played with both hands have come to be called portatives, especially when their pipe arrangement or general layout resembles that of the genuine portative. One of the most well-known modern proponents of that kind of 'large portative' organ was Dolly Collins, who accompanied her vocalist sister

Shirley Collins Shirley Elizabeth Collins MBE (born 5 July 1935) is an English folk singer who was a significant contributor to the British Folk Revival of the 1960s and 1970s. She often performed and recorded with her sister Dolly, whose accompaniment on ...

on many albums of traditional English folk songs.

History

Towards the middle of the 13th century, miniatures of illuminated manuscripts depict portatives with modern, balanced-action keyboards. An example can be seen in the Spanish manuscript known as the , which contains 51 miniatures of instrumentalists. It is evident from the position of the organist's thumb in these miniatures that the keys are pressed down to make the notes sound. There are nine pipes and nine keys, which is sufficient for a C-major diatonic scale of one octave with an added B-flat. Medieval portative organs, so extensively used during the 14th and the 15th centuries, were revivals of those used by the Romans of which a specimen excavated at

Pompeii Pompeii ( ; ) was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Villa Boscoreale, many surrounding villas, the city was buried under of volcanic ash and p ...

in 1876 is preserved in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale Napoli. The case measures and contains nine pipes, of which the longest measures only ; six of the pipes have oblong holes at a short distance from the top similar to those made in ''gamba'' pipes of modern organs to give them their reedy quality, and also to those cut in the bamboo pipes of the Chinese , which is a mouth organ furnished with free reeds. From the description of these remains by C. F. Abdy Williams, cites ''Quarterly Musical Review'', (August, 1893). it would seem that a bronze plate having 18 rectangular slits arranged in three rows to 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 part of the mechanism for the sliders of the keys. The small instrument that is often taken for a

syrinx In classical Greek mythology, Syrinx () was an Arcadian nymph and a follower of Artemis, known for her chastity. Being pursued by Pan, she fled into the river Ladon, and at her own request was metamorphosed into a reed from which Pan then mad ...

on a

contorniate A contorniate, or contourniate (UK pronunciation: ), is a type of ancient Roman medal or medallion of bronze issued in the fourth and fifth centuries CE, having a deep furrow on the contour or edge, as if the object had been turned in a lathe. ...

medallion of Sallust in the Cabinet Impérial de France in Paris may be meant for a miniature portative.

References

Attribution

External links

Modern portative organs

Portative organs, Organetti

Virtual portative under GrandOrgue

{{DEFAULTSORT:Portative Organ Pipe organ Early musical instruments