Claviorganum

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The claviorganum (also known as the claviorgan, or organised piano) is an instrument whose origin is uncertain. A number of "virgynalls with regals" are mentioned in the inventories of Henry VIII in 1542/3 and 1547 and Wilson Barry ^[1] cites references to the claviorganum in England dating back to the 1530s. The term claviorganum in its strictest sense refers to the combination of a harpsichord (or other harpsichord type instrument) and an organ, although later could also be used to refer to a combination of a piano and organ. Michael Praetorius describes the claviorganum in his Syntagma Musicum of 1619 as

" ... a clavicymbal, or some other symphony, in which a number of pipes is combined with the strings. Externally it looks exactly like a clavicymbal or symphony, apart from the bellows, which are sometimes set at the rear and sometimes placed inside the body"^[2]

[edit] References

1. ^ Wilson Barry (1990: 38)
2. ^ Michael Praetorius (1619) Chapter 42 (translated David Crookes)

[edit] Sources

• New Grove Dictionary of Music, online edition [available (with subscription) at <http://www.grovemusic.com>]
• Wilson Barry (1990) ‘The Lodewyk Theewes Claviorganum and its Position in the History of Keyboard Instruments’, Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, xvi (1990), pp. 5-41.