Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup tuning Draft 2 FAQ: Organs with split keys fewer than 19 per octave

Open to discussion - second, revised draft of

- please - comment on this version from now on!

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FAQ TUNING-list

Organs with split keys or added keys
fewer than 19 tones per octave (but more than 12)

by
Ibo Ortgies

- Introduction
- Added keys or split keys in pythagorean tuning
- Meantone extension
- Short octave and split keys
- Terminology
- A Very Short History
- Use
- selected literature (to come...)

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Introduction

From the 15th to the 18th century keys were added to keyboard
instruments as a rather convenient way to exceed the limitations of
restricted temperaments and tunings in keyboard instruments, since the
essential features of these temperaments were kept, like for example the
pure major thirds of meantone temperament.

Split keys were inserted in those places were there are usually upper
keys between diatonic notes can be found.
Usually the split keys in the small and one-stroke octave were "broken"
to provide additional keys. Occasionally notes in the two-stroke octave
also were broken, but only eb''/d#'' (more frequent) and g#''/ab'' (less frequent).

Added keys or split keys in pythagorean tuning

There are hints provided by Christopher Stembridge and L. F. Tagliavini,
that extra keys were already used in organs tuned in pythagorean tuning
in the middle of the 15th century, but at the same time meantone
temperament rose and lead to a greater interest in adding the "tasti
spezzati" or "subsemitonia".
The pythagorean example given by Stembridge and Tagliavini is from an
intarsia showing an extra key between E and F. This may be interpreted
as the chain of pure perfect fifths from
Cb- Gb- Db ... A - E

resulting practically in

ex. 1 B - F#- C#- G#-(Eb- Bb- F - C) ...
/ \ / \ / \ /
... Eb- Bb- F - C - G - D - A - E

or as a similar chain of pure perfect fifths Fb- Cb- Gb- ... D - A

ex. 2 E - B - F#- C#-(Ab- Eb- Bb- F) ...
/ \ / \ / \ /
... Ab- Eb- Bb- F - C - G - D - A

In both examples the brackets indicate that the repeated notes are just
continuing the chain.
The upper rows, for example B - F#- C#- G# in ex. 1, turn out to be
practically pure major thirds (384,4 cents), only a schisma (1,9
ct) lower than pure major thirds (386,3 ct).

Especially in an organ the "drawing together effect" might render these
pure to the listener. And it is not unlikely, that pythagorean tuning
might have been derived from

The split key between E and F would add either the E above C (to ex. 1)

ex. 3 E - B - F#- C#- G#
/ \ / \ / \ / \ /
Eb- Bb- F - C - G - D - A - E

or the pure fifth E to A

ex. 4 E - B - F#- C#
/ \ / \ / \ / \
Ab- Eb- Bb- F - C - G - D - A - E

Meantone extension

In an italian organ around 1500 (four such organs are known before),
tuned in (some) meantone temperament, the first key to be split might be
the a-flat, provided with the g# (as back key) - as can be seen in the
(reconstructed) keyboards of the 2 famous organs in Bologna, Italy, S.
Petronio, the older one from 1475, getting split keys during the rebuilt
by G. B. Facchetti in 1528-1531 and the other organ from 1596 built by
B. Malamini.
Others started with doubling eb/d#.

Later it became usual to split consequently: eb/d#, g#/ab (g# being in
front), bb/a# then c#/db (seldom). There are only two organs known which
had all these 4 split sharps and in both cases all concentrated in one
octave span:
Wolfenbï¿½ttel, Germany, Hauptkirche BMV, 1620-1624 G. Fritzsche, and
Sciacca, Italy, S. Margherita, 1639 G. Sutera and V. Monteleone

Not one known organ with less than 19 notes per octave had *all split
keys (or more) as subsemitones, like the "enharmonic" instruments.

The pattern with eb/d# and g#/ab (14 notes/pitches per octave) seems to
have been frequent. It provides the following possibilities,
symmetrically ordered around the fifth of the 1st mode D-A.

ex. 5 ... G#- D#
\ / \ / \
... E - B - F#- C#- G#- D#...
\ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
... C - G - D - A - E - B ...
\ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
Ab- Eb- Bb- F - C - G ...
\ / \ / \
Ab- Eb ...

dashes and slashes indicate
- meantone fifths
/ pure major thirds
\ minor thirds (as defined by the two previous)

dotted lines ... and slashes with "open end" indicate continuation in
the next row below or above. Which is nothing else than
Ab- Eb- Bb- F- C- G- D- A- E- B- F#- C# - G#- D#
a chain of meantone-tuned perfect fifths, not indicating the third-relations

Short octave and split keys

d' was also the middle, symmetrical key on the keyboards with short
octave CDEFGA-c'''.

The keyboard in the bass would look like

D E Bb
C F G A B c

The short octave might have originated from the previous
FGAB-g'',a''-compass by adding the C to the left of the keyboard and the
D and E at the indicated places. Some F-keyboards seem to have been
actually based on D (same pattern, but without the C).

How important the symmetrical aspect might have been regarded is
difficult to say. Amazing is in this respect that the keyboards until
ca. 1700 were rather equipped with extra notes in the bass for F# and
G#, built as split keys (but which are not "subsemitones") as well:

F# G#
D E Bb
C F G A B c

There are a few keyboard designs, deviating from the above sketched
patterns, apparently "omitting" certain keys, like doubling
eb/d# and bb/a#, leaving out the frequent g#/ab), or providing
g#/ab and c#/db , but not eb/d#
whichs possible purpose is explained below.

Terminology

The "lattice" diagram above use as a "informal" way to show the symmetry
of meantone and the central key d, resp. the fifth d-a is also the
fundament of the most "popular" pythagorean tuning "Gb"-H ...
Interesting that the organ builders kept until the 20th century the
nomenclature of the pythagorean tuning, saying "d#" even when a "real"
eb is tuned - and the tablature notation, for example the so-called "new
German organ-tablature" in the 17th century, where notes were expressed
by letters and signs for rhythms (s. J. G. Walthers "Musicalisches
Lexicon", table XXI) also stayed with this standard.
A c-minor-chord would be notated "c ds g".

The added split keys keys were marked in the Fritzsche- and
Manderscheidt-tradition with an "#" on the pipes ( and in contracts:

name sounding note
ds eb
ds# d#
--------
gs g#
gs# ab

This can be found for example in the specification-draft from 1612 by
Hans Leo Hassler for the future organ in the castle chapel of the
electoral court in Dresden, completed by Gottfried Fritzsche probably
end of 1612. A facsimile of this important document is easily
accessible in Gress 1993 (p. 76-77, transcription p. 102-103).

A report from Breslau/Wroclaw, that the organ in Stiftskirche St.
Vincenz, built in the 1660ies by J.C.B. Waldhauser mentions "dis" (eb)
and "dass" (d#).

Michael Praetorius ("De organographia", 1619) wrote however (only here?)
"es" and "ds", "gs" and "as".

A Very Short History

It seems to have been Italian organ builders of the mid-15th-C. who were
the first to apply split keys in organ building. Not surprising Italy
was the main center of this development for the first 150 years and
nearly half of the instruments we know of today are to be found in this
country. Until 1600 we leran about 19 organs. From Italy the idea might
have spread to Spain (the picture within Spain still remains somewhat unclear).

In Italy the development seems to faded out after 1660, but shortly
after 1600 however, Germany, which was dominated by musicians under
Italian influence, took a central position. Split keys were promoted by
the leader of the Wolfenbï¿½ttel court chapel, Michael Praetorius, and the
Saxon court organ builder Gottfried Fritzsche. Other promoters were f.
example Henrich Schï¿½tz (Dresden) and Jacob Praetorius (Hamburg), both
knowing and cooperating with each other and with Fritzsche. Dresden was
the first organ norther of the alps in which split keys were applied
(Schlick 1511 reports a failed attempt at an unknown place by two
unknown builders). The chapel organ was finished by G. Fritzsche in 1612
after having planned it together with Schï¿½tz' predecessor as chapel
master of the electoral court, Hans Leo Hassler. It is hoped by the way
that in the near future this organ will be reconstructed in the as well
reconstructed Dresden castle.

The Manderscheidt-family originally working in and around Nï¿½rnberg
(Nuremberg) has to be mentioned too, because they produced several
positives, but also bigger church organs like the recently restored
choir organ in Fribourg, Switzerland, St. Nicolas, built 1654-1657 by
Sebald Manderscheidt.

From these geographical area the idea spread further to surrounding
regions and countries:

- Denmark: only one example known, probably an organ builder
of Saxon origin (the courts of Denmark and saxony
were dynastically linked)

- Sweden: the only country were also local organ builders
took the practice over.

- the Netherlands: the northwest-German organ builder family
van Hagerbeer (1630ies/1640ies)

- Switzerland: Manderscheidt-family (s. above) ca. 1650

- England: 2 organs known, by Bernard Smith (Bernhard Schmidt)
in the 1680ies

In France this tradition did not prevail, there is no safe evidence for
organs with split keys (even not the one example in Paris, St. Nicolas
des Champs, 1632-1636, C. Carlier, is known whether it was realized) and
the Gamba-player Jean-Jaques Rousseau confirmed in 1697 that this
tradition was not to be found in France, contrary to Italy.

At the end of the 17th century there are still large organs built with 3
manuals and pedal in Sweden and Germany, whcih contained 3 split
keys/octave, namely eb/d#, g#/ab and bb/a#, sometimes even going down to
the great octave (Bb/A# occurs), which usually did not happen (Italian
early compasses down to FF, 12-foot, excluded).

With the rise of circulating temperaments the practice disappeared in
organ building soon after 1700. The last organ was built by J. and V. F.
Bossart in 1716-1721 in Luzern (Switzerland), St. Urban.
The history of piano's with less than 19 keys/octave is not well known.
Broadwood is reported to have built a piano in 1766 which had all upper
keys split.
About 70 organs with 13-16 keys per octave are known today to have been
built during the time sketched above.

The historical informed performance practice movemend lead organ
builders to build organs in meantone tuning again and so the split keys
came back into modern organ building.

With the return of historical oriented organ building and the rise of
historical temperaments and tunings in the practice of instrument
building and performance practice split keys have become a more and more
frequent feature again since the 1970ies, after an interlude of nearly
300 years. Italy, the USA, Sweden and Switzerland might be today the
countries with the highest concentration of existing organs with split
keys, while the development in other traditional organ countries like
the Netherlands or Germany has not yet led to a more frequent re-use again.

Use

Though split keys could be used in several ways, transposition seems to
be the most important reason for their existence. Transposition to a
variety of intervals was frequent and necessary: The organist had to
provide the proper tones in the liturgy, to play transcriptions
(intabulations) in different applied pitches and to accompany ensembles.

Special designs were developped, for example by apparently "omitting"
certain keys, to enable comfortable transposition by certain intervals
(reflecting probably the relative low or high organ pitch in the
respective region). Designs in other organs lead to the conclusion that
their split keys were used mainly in continuo-playing (Wolfenbï¿½ttel, and
maybe, Sciacca). Another organ (Sï¿½nderborg Slotskapel, 1626, rebuilt by
B. (Zencker [?]) and restored recently by Mads Kjersgaard) even has two
manuals, one of them with split keys, that shows some similarity to the
concept of the so-called ï¿½transposing" instruments by the German/Flemish
harpsichord builders Ruckers.

Selected literature:
--

-----------------------
Ibo Ortgies

http://www.hum.gu.se/goart/ortgies/homepage.htm
http://www.hum.gu.se/goart/ortgies/public.html

GOArt (Gï¿½teborg Organ Art center) Gï¿½teborgs universitet
http://www.hum.gu.se/goart/w-1.htm

Draft 2 FAQ: Organs with split keys fewer than 19 per octave

🔗Ibo Ortgies <ibo.ortgies@musik.gu.se>

🔗jpehrson@rcn.com