A CHAMBER Organ formerly in the Tolbecque Collection, and belonging to the epoch of Louis XIII. The Positive Organ, as the name implies, was intended to remain in a fixed place, while the smaller portable organ (orgue portatif) was made to be carried about. The disposition of the pipes was usually the same in both organs,—what may be called the natural order,—ascending from the longest pipe in the bass to the shortest in the treble, but some positive organs had the pipes arranged in a circular disposition, perhaps for a more equal distribution of the weight upon what is known as the sound-board. The instrument admits of more than one register. There are authentic representations of positives in several old pictures, one of the best known being that in the St. Cecilia panel, by Hubert Van Eyck, in the famous altar-piece of the Adoration of the Lamb at Ghent. The original St. Cecilia panel, now at Berlin, was not painted later than 1426, but the panel at Ghent is a good copy. Another St. Cecilia panel (date about 1484), with a positive organ, by an unknown painter, is not of such universal fame, but is nevertheless of very great merit. It is in the palace of Holyrood, Edinburgh, and is of equal value with the Van Eyck panel as a faithful representation of the instrument, and of the chromatic arrangement of the keys, thus early introduced.
The Positive Organ drawn in this volume has been intended for chamber, not choir, use. It has three registers, and the drawstops which control them project at the right-hand side of the case the same as in the old Flemish harpsichords. The principal register, that of the show pipes of gilt tin, is called the Montre; and the compass of it is from the E below, to the third C above, middle C—three octaves and a sixth. The second register, also of tin, is an octave higher in pitch, but extends only from the first E below, to the second C above, middle C; the remainder of the key-board compass is borrowed from the Montre. The third register is the Bourdon—wooden pipes stopped at the upper ends, an octave lower in pitch than the Montre. The Bourdon extends in compass from E an octave and sixth below, to the second C above, middle C. The three registers in this instrument are consequently at octave distances, but Praetorius (1619) describes an old positive in which the registers were in the relation of the fifth and octave to the lowest!—a combination the modern musical ear rejects. The boxwood natural keys with gilded paper fronts, as seen in this specimen, were common to the earliest known key-board instruments. The dimensions of this Positive Organ, including the stand, are—height, 6 feet 4 inches; width, 2 feet 6 inches; and depth, 1 foot 4 inches. The paintings inside the doors are, to the left, St. Cecilia playing upon a positive organ, while three angels sing and a fourth blows the bellows; to the right, a warrior crowned with laurel is in the attitude of listening; outside the doors there are panels with paintings of a woman playing on an instrument of the viol kind, and another playing a flute. There is a crowing cock upon the apex of the cornice. This Positive Organ is the property of the Conservatoire Royal, Brussels.
PLATE XII.
REGAL.
THE Regal here drawn is the prototype of the modern harmonium, but with "beating" not "free" reeds. The beating reed is usually employed in the organ, and it derives its appellation from the reeds touching the sides of their frames. The beating reed was introduced in the fifteenth century, but whether in the simple regal first, or as part of an organ, is not known. In England, the word "regal" has been also used to denote a portable organ, as is shown by Sir John Hawkins's suggestion that the stage direction to the players' scene in Hamlet, "Enter a duke and a duchess with regal coronets," should be "with regals and cornets." The oldest German authorities, as Virdung (1511) and Praetorius (1619), separate them and describe the regal as a reed instrument with key-board exactly like this one, a kind of positive and not a portable organ. This Regal, which was in the Tolbecque Collection, is attributed in date to the end of the sixteenth century. It came from the Abbey of Freuenfeld in Switzerland, and now belongs to the Brussels Conservatoire. Mr. Victor Mahillon, the curator of the museum of that institution, records another fine specimen of this very rare instrument in the possession of the Community of Lady Canonesses of the order of St. Augustine, at Brussels, to which body it was presented, by the founder of the Order, in 1625. The regal is said to have been much used in convents to accompany the singing of the nuns. The Belgian Government kindly allowed a selection of the Conservatoire instruments, of which the Regal here drawn was one, to be played in the Historic Concerts given in July 1885, in the Music Room of the Inventions Exhibition. This instrument, when on its stand, measures 2 feet 8 inches in height, the width is the same, and the length is 4 feet 2 inches. The case is of finely-carved walnut. The compass of the key-board is from the second E below, to the second A above, middle C—about the extent of the human voice, and the frequent compass of old organs.