A positive organ (also positiv organ, positif organ, portable organ, chair organ, or simply positive, positiv, positif, or chair) (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 ''ponere'', "to place") is a small, usually one-manual,

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 is built to be more or less mobile. It was common in sacred and secular music between the 10th and the 18th centuries, in chapels and small churches, as a chamber organ and for the

basso continuo Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...

in ensemble works. The smallest common kind of positive, hardly higher than the keyboard, is called chest or box organ and is especially popular for basso continuo work; positives for more independent use tend to be higher. From the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

through

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 ...

and

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

the instrument came in many different forms, including processional and tabletop organs that have profited relatively less from the renewed popularity the type in general has enjoyed from the Orgelbewegung onwards.

History

A well-known instance of an early positive or portable organ of the 4th century occurs on the obelisk erected to the memory of Theodosius I on his death in AD 395. Among the illuminated manuscripts of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

there are many miniatures representing interesting varieties of the portable organ of the Middle Ages, including Add. MS. 29902 (fol. 6), Add. MS. 27695b (fol. 13), and Cotton MS. Tiberius A VII. fol. 104d., all of the 14th century, and Add. MS. 28962 and Add. MS. 17280, both of the 15th century. In the

and

periods, positive organs were used at many kinds of civil and religious functions. They were used in the homes and chapels of the rich, at banquets and court events, in choirs and music schools, and in the small orchestras of

Jacopo Peri Jacopo Peri (20 August 156112 August 1633) was an Italian composer, singer and instrumentalist of the late Renaissance music, Renaissance and early Baroque music, Baroque periods. He wrote what is considered the first opera, the mostly lost ''D ...

and

Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string instrument, string player. A composer of both Secular music, secular and Church music, sacred music, and a pioneer ...

at the dawn of the musical drama or opera.

Construction

Casing

Many positives, both of the box and 'cupboard' types, can be divided into upper and lower parts to be more easily moved. The lower part then usually contains the bellows, blower and/or treadle, and perhaps a few of the largest pipes. Wheels, casters or a custom-made

hand truck A hand truck, also known as a hand trolley, dolly, stack truck, trundler, box cart, sack barrow, cart, sack truck, two wheeler, or bag barrow, is an L-shaped box-moving cart, handcart with handles at one end, wheels at the base, with a small ledg ...

are other aids to mobility, which have become vastly more common in modern times. File:Amiralitetskyrkan choir organ.jpg, Positive organ in Karlskrona Admiralty Church,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

File:2013 Orgelkids Doe-orgel pijpen plaatsen.jpg, Children in primary school are assembling a do-organ of Orgelkids File:FolleJournée2009 ABO orguePositif.jpg, Chest, or box, organ used during La Folle Journée, 2009

Stops

Positive organs typically exhibit few stops due to their small size and portable nature; a specification of 8 ft Gedackt (capped), 4 ft

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

and 2 ft principal (diapason) is common. Somewhat larger positives may also have a ft or other mutation stop and/or a small

mixture In chemistry, a mixture is a material made up of two or more different chemical substances which can be separated by physical method. It is an impure substance made up of 2 or more elements or compounds mechanically mixed together in any proporti ...

, and some have an 8 ft reed stop (such as a regal). Still larger positives may have a 4 ft principal or a second 8 ft stop, the latter often treble-only. More complex examples feature a divided keyboard, which allows each stop to be activated separately in the treble and bass portions of the keyboard. This makes it possible to play a melody and an accompaniment simultaneously on different registrations. Most positives have just one manual keyboard and no pedals, but there are examples with a set of pedal pulldowns or even a pedal stop or two, as well as rarer ones with two manuals.One example of a two-manual positive a

accessed October 19, 2010.

Wind supply

Before electricity, positives required either the player or a second person to operate 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 ...

in order to supply wind to the instrument, but most modern positives include electric blowers for this purpose.

Compass and various

The positive organ differs from the

portative organ A portative organ (from the Latin verb , "to carry"), also known during Italian Trecento as the , is a small pipe organ that consists of one rank of flue pipes, sometimes arranged in two rows, to be played while strapped to the performer at a r ...

in that it is larger and is not played while strapped at a right angle to the performer's body. It also has a larger keyboard (typically 49 notes or more in modern examples, often 45 or so notes with a short octave in older ones), while a portative may have as few as 12 or 13 notes. The positive is also not to be confused with the regal, a small keyboard instrument that contains short-length reed pipes. However, since the Orgelbewegung revival of small organs, small positives to be played with both hands have also come to be called 'portatives' in many cases, especially when their pipes are arranged without housing in a chromatic row like in the genuine portative.

Other uses of the term

The Positive is also a traditional department of a large organ, often placed behind the organist's back and more or less the size of a separate positive organ. In

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

it became known as a ''Chair organ'', later to be corrupted into the ''Choir'' division found on Romantic and many modern organs. Also, since the Orgelbewegung, the German term ''Ruckpositiv'' (''Rückpositiv'') can be encountered in English.

References

External links

Picture of a new 2009 positive organ
available for sale or rent by New England Organbuilders of Connecticut

at the Vienna Museum of Art History {{DEFAULTSORT:Positive Organ Keyboard instruments Early musical instruments Organs (music)