The Fifteenth Century

Review Quiz

By the fifteenth century, organs were being built with several characteristics which would become standard elements of design for the next several centuries.

• Much of what we know comes from writings such as Arnaut's Treatise and occasional mentions in church records.
• Because there is more surviving literature from the fifteenth century, the music itself can tell us something about the instruments.
• Finally, we can once again study the iconographical evidence of paintings and other visual records.

To judge from extant sources of information, organs of the fifteenth century had developed from the easily-classified three sizes of the Middle Ages to a point that we can find in them many of the fundamental features that are still characteristic of the instrument today. That is, we know that during the fifteenth century, at least some instruments in different parts of Europe had:

• A system that allowed several different bellows to supply wind to a common regulating device.
• More than one manual keyboard. Both visual records and surviving literature point to the presence of at least two manuals in northern Europe.
• A pedalboard. For example, specific notation in the Buxheimer Orgelbuch indicates the general acceptance of pedal keyboards in northern Europe.
• Stop controls for shutting off separate ranks of pipes.

We may never know just how some of these new characteristics seen in organs were developed, or when they originated, who first introduced them to organ-building, or what path they followed as they spread from one region to another. Furthermore, we don't have any complete instruments that survive in an unaltered state, so we can't even look at them or listen to them. However, using the information we do know from the sources mentioned above, we can draw some conclusions about the organ in general during the fifteenth century.

Different Tone Colors

• Stop mechanisms to allow the player to play on only some of the ranks of the Blockwerk.
• In effect, the combination of different organs, resulting in instruments with different keyboards that controlled different divisions of pipes.

There are fewer surviving paintings and manuscript illuminations of large organs than there are of either portative or positive organs. One important painting that gives us a good idea of the appearance of at least one instrument of the late Gothic period is the one seen at the left, completed by P. Saenredam in 1636. ⁹⁵ The painting shows the interior of the Grote Kerk in Haarlem, with the organ of 1466 prominently displayed. The first thing to notice about the organ is its placement: it is on the side wall of the nave, not in a rear gallery. The particular style of balcony that supports the instrument is a type called a "swallow's nest," with a base that extends downward to a point. This shape is a typical type of support for an organ of the Gothic period that is placed high on a wall of a church, as this one is. A set of bordunen, mentioned above as a late feature of Blockwerk organ, is clearly visible on the wall, outside the main case.

It is important to realize that this organ no doubt incorporates elements that were well-established when the organ was built. At the same time, there must be characteristics that were relatively new in the fifteenth century. From our point of view -- over 500 years later -- we can look at the instrument depicted in this painting and see both the old and the new. We can look at it and see what the organ would become later, what this one contains that would be built on in later instruments, what would be left behind and what would lead ultimately to the grand instruments of later centuries.

Let's look again at the painting of the Grote Kerk organ, and see what fifteenth-century characteristics can be found there. In the enlarged view to the right, we can see several important characteristics:

• This organ has the trompes mentioned on the page about the late medieval (Gothic) organ. They are the large pipes that are in a separate section to the right of the main organ. We can safely assume that by the time this organ was built (the middle of the fifteenth century), these pipes were controlled by a pedalboard. In effect, they are early pedal divisions installed in a separate case.
• The main case itself shows some characteristics that are found in other organs of the region over the next two centuries:
  • The façade is a flat surface made up of pipes of the Praestant and a supporting wooden frame that is also decorative.
  • Pipes in the façade are arranged in an almost sculptural manner. At some points there are two levels of pipes, at others only one. Each section of pipes -- framed by the supporting woodwork of the case -- is called a pipe flat, while groups of larger pipes that extend the full height of the case are called towers.
  • The case includes doors (shown in the open position) that can be closed over the front of the organ when it is not in use.
• There is a separate, smaller case below the main instrument. It also has doors that are open. This would be in effect a second organ, built in a manner similar to a positive organ, and played from a second keyboard.⁹⁰

During the fifteenth century, regional differences began to appear. Organs from the north took on several characteristics (multiple manuals, for example) that were to characterize such instruments for centuries to come. In the south multiple manuals were not built, but a high number of stops controlling individual ranks became very common. In the sixteenth century, these regional differences became more firmly entrenched, and it is necessary to discuss sixteenth-century and later organs on both a geographical and a chronological basis.¹¹¹

Enlarged photograph

• 396 x 600 pixels, 136 Kb
• 507 x 768 pixels, 205 Kb