Portative organ

The Portative ( from Lat portare " bear " ) is next to the shelf to the smallest ( pipe ) organs.

Design, sound and playing style

In contrast to the shelf that has reed pipes, the Portative is equipped exclusively with flue pipes. Many Porta scopes the pipes are made of Fixmensur, that is, all pipes have the same diameter, resulting in a slightly iridescent sound across the note range.

From the larger pipe organ types including the organ positive, the Portative differs by the lower range, which hardly exceeds two octaves, and the lack of ability to program changes. For the hand-held bellows allowed to vary by a direct influence on the wind pressure sound and volume of the pipes. Some Portative are equipped with additional drones that are individually switched on and sound lower than the melody pipes and are therefore usually carried out for reasons of space as covered pipes.

A major difference to all other types of organs including the shelf is also the position of the keyboard relative to the player. The player places the Portative while sitting on his lap, or he wears it while standing on a strap over his shoulder. He uses the keyboard only with the right hand while operating with the left hand, the bellows that supply the wind whistling. The player ( Portatifer ) sitting as compared to all other types of organs not directly in front of the keyboard but at a right angle to it.

The appearance of the Portativs is always unbalanced. The pipes are arranged in the sequence of the chromatic scale and stand in the shortest possible distance to the respective key on the keyboard on the wind chest. The game mechanics is conceivable easily constructed: Each button opens the game valve of the overlying pipe.

Historical classification

The Portative is a historic musical instrument that was played mainly in the Middle Ages and Renaissance music. In Baroque music, it was used less and less. Although the Portative is shown on many works of painting and the visual arts as a musical instrument that is played by angels, it was hardly used in church music. Most Portativspieler were minstrels.

Since the reintroduction of the classic wind loading system, the mechanical grinding charge, in the 1930s, the Portative is often built again, as a journeyman piece of organ builders that prove to our small compared to the large organ much cheaper produced instrument all the essential craft skills of the organ builder can.

As a modern variant of Portativs there since 2002, the pitch- adjustable Portative which has a tuning device for each individual pipe. It is mainly used in music education and is learning a clean intonation as well as the understanding of historical tuning systems.

Portative in Organ Museum of Borgentreich (replica )

Angel illustration with Portative in Himmelcron Monastery