(Fr. clavecin organisé; Ger. Orgelklavier; It., Sp. claviórgano).
An English equivalent to the quasi-Latin claviorganum, denoting a keyboard instrument in which strings and pipes ‘sound together to produce a pleasing sound’ (Praetorius, 2/1619). In early sources, late 15th-century Spanish or 16th-century Italian collections, for example, it cannot be assumed that clabiórgano, etc., invariably denotes a composite keyboard instrument of this kind; often the word may have been used for (secular) organs in general, perhaps to distinguish them from portatives or regals. The English term seems to have appeared only at the end of the 19th century (Engel, Hipkins) but it may be earlier. The adjective ‘organisé’ was used in France at least by the middle of the 16th century and copied by English lexicographers (e.g. Randle Cotgrave, 1611).
The true claviorgan remained on the fringe of music-making for at least three centuries; its history is thus neither continuous nor connected but comprises a series of important types. In the 16th century spinets or virginals ‘with pipes undernethe’ are known to have existed from documentary evidence (e.g. at least five are listed in the inventories of Henry VIII, 1547) and from surviving examples (e.g. the spinet-regal-organ formerly in Schloss Ambras); double- or triple-strung, full-size harpsichords with positive organs incorporated are to be found in Germany (a Dresden inventory, 1593), Italy (Banchieri, 1605), England (one made by Theeus, 1579 Victoria and Albert Museum, London) and elsewhere. Many examples must have been little more than toys (e.g. the mechanical claviorgan patented in Venice, 1575). In the 17th century there was immense variety, from the clavichord-organ combinations known from theorists (Barcotto c1640, Todini, 1676) and extant examples (V. Zeiss of Linz, 1639) to the organ-spinet-harpsichord-Geigenwerk (Galleria armonica) made in Rome by michelle Todini from about 1650. The acoustic and mechanical theorists (e.g. Kircher, 1650) were attracted to the more doubtful aspects of these composite instruments. From about 1580 to about 1780, many large organs are known to have had a row or two of harpsichord strings, especially those in German court churches, but also in various other places from Sicily to Coventry. Particularly in England, chest-like or even harpsichord-shaped chamber organs were made during the 18th century specifically to carry a harpsichord on top whose keys depressed the organ pallets below through simple stickers; this is known both from theoretical sources (e.g. Burney: ‘Schudi’, ‘Snetzler’ in Rees's Cyclopaedia, 1819, and the varied and detailed drawings given by Dom Bédos de Celles, 1766–78) and from extant examples (e.g. the Earl of Wemyss's Kirkman-Snetzler claviorgan of 1745–51, see illustration). Even in many quite late sources it is not clear what exactly ‘claviorgano’ denoted (e.g. Cristofori's accounts, Florence, 1693). Late in the 18th century, many pianos, particularly large square ones, were made with several ranks of flute and chorus organ pipes, often by the best makers in London (e.g. Broadwood) and, to a lesser extent, Paris (Taskin). John Geib (1744–1818) claimed to be the first to make ‘organized pianos’ in London. By about 1840, harmonium-pianos played only a minor role among the vast array of composite, hybrid and other fanciful, constantly patented inventions.
There never was a specific claviorgan repertory, although some pieces were written to exploit individual instruments (e.g. one of Handel’s organ concertos, 1739, composed for the organ-harpsichord used in Saul, 1738 – probably Handel's famous ‘maggot’). Claviorgans were used occasionally in the Florentine intermedii in the 16th century. Many theorists pointed out the variety of colours possible, often calculating them mathematically. Claviorgans were occasionally named on the title-pages or in prefaces to various publications (e.g. A. de Arena, Bassas dansas, 1572, for ‘espineta sola, espinate organisati’, and S. Seminiati, Salmi, 1620, for ‘leuti … organi o claviorgani’). They are sometimes mentioned in diaries and the like as having been played in works not expressly calling for them. For example, Michael Arne played a theatre concerto in 1784 on an ‘Organized Piano Forte’ (R.J.S. Stevens's MS); Burney (Travels) heard an Italian nun using a claviorgan in church; Mattheson recommended them in Hamburg for church cantatas (1739, etc). By about 1770 (J.A. Stein), a clavecin organisé was played in order to give dynamic changes by adding or subtracting organ stops. In 1768 Adlung remarked that the claviorgan was less common than in his ‘young days’, the new piano having replaced it in expressive music.
P. Williams: ‘The Earl of Wemyss’ Claviorgan and its Context in Eighteenth-century England’, Keyboard Instruments: Studies in Keyboard Organology, ed. E.M. Ripin (Edinburgh, 1971, 2/1977), 75–84 [incl. further bibliography]
W. Barry: ‘The Lodewyk Theewes Claviorgan and its Position in the History of Keyboard Music’, JAMIS, xvi (1990), 5–41
DONALD HOWARD BOALCH, PETER WILLIAMS