Claviorganum, a curiosity? A quest into the history and the influence of the claviorganum on musical praxis

Bart Naessens
Promotors: Kristin Van den Buys, Luc Ponet

We can conclude from historical source material that sixteenth- and seventeenth-century instrument building experienced a tremendous explosion of varied instrumentation, partly due to the continuous search of the theorist, musician, and instrument builder for new instrument-technical and resulting extra-musical possibilities. Yet today within historical performance practice we often see the use of a standardized set of instruments. The applicable keyboard instruments are thereby reduced to organ and/or harpsichord as continuo and/or solo instruments. However, this polarised use of an organ (positive) or harpsichord is not historical. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the musician’s search for a more expressive instrument that was in line with his basic musical intentions or an experimental vision of a theoretician and/or instrument builder often led to a new concept and/or expansion of the actual possibilities of the keyboard at hand.
This doctoral research by Bart Naessens wants to test the use of the claviorganum within the active music making practice. A hybrid instrument in which both harpsichord and organ sound together can solve many idiomatic problems of both instruments and provide new insights, ideas, and aesthetic horizons. The focus is on the implications of the use of the claviorganum, how the instrument relates to the two separate components, and how this “combination instrument” can play its role within current music-making practices.