clavicimbalum – Early Music Muse

York Minster: 900 years of music iconography. Part 2 of 2: The instruments of the magnificent pulpitum or Kings Screen, 1473–1500.

Ian Pittaway Agricola Martin, bagpipes, bray harp, broken consort, Bruegel Pieter the Elder, clavicembalum, clavichord, clavicimbalum, clavicymbalum, clavicytherium, clavisimbalum, clavisymbalum, consort, cymbals, double recorder, drum, Dunstaple John, English consort, farting, fiddle, Fight Between Carnival and Lent by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, flute, fools, gittern, harp, harpsichord, iconography, lute, mixed consort, monochord, nakers, organ, organistrum, Pavel Žídek of Prague, portative organ, positive organ, Praetorius Michael, psaltery, recorder, rommelpot, rota, rote, rothe, rotta, sampogna, shawm, simfonia, sinfonye, spinet, symfenyge, symphonia, symphonie, transverse flute, triangle, tromba marina, trumpet, viella, vielle, Virdung Sebastian, virginal, York Minster 17th September 202517th September 2025 4 Comments

In the first article about York Minster, we spanned nearly 900 years of music iconography from circa 1030 to 1915, with an actual 11^th century oliphant in the crypt, and carvings of a pipe and tabor, harps, trumpets, gitterns, lutes, nakers, violin, timbrel, and portative organ.

This second article is dedicated to one outstanding feature of York Minster, the pulpitum or Kings Screen, with 56 carvings of instruments from 1473–1500: shawms, bagpipes, trumpets, transverse flute, recorder, double recorder, lutes, bray harps, gitterns, rotas, fiddles, symphonie, tromba marina, portative organs, positive organ, clavicimbalum, cymbals, fool’s percussion, triangle, nakers, and singers.

This article therefore acts as a survey of instruments played in England in the last quarter of the 15^th century, including some of the instruments lesser-known in the modern early music revival: the rota, the tromba marina, and the clavicimbalum.

Each carving of an instrument is photographed and described, accompanied by a video of each instrument playing music from the time.

The medieval portative organ: an interview with Cristina Alís Raurich

Ian Pittaway clavicembalum, clavicimbalum, clavicytherium, Guido of Arezzo, harpsichord, historically informed performance, mediaeval, medieval, Medieval Music Besalú, medieval notation, organ, organetto, organino, portative organ, positive organ, Raurich Cristina Alís, renaissance 9th June 201828th June 2025 8 Comments

Cristina Alís Raurich is a historical musician and researcher who specialises in keyboards of the middle ages and early renaissance: portative organ, positive organ, clavicimbalum, and clavicytherium. Not only is Cristina a musician of consummate skill, her love for her instruments and specialism is obvious and infectious: rarely have I seen anyone play and talk about music with such transparent joy. This I discovered when we met at Bolton Castle, Wensleydale, England, in 2017, where she gave a presentation on the history of the portative organ; performed in the duo, Sonus Hyspaniae, on portative organ and percussion, with Raúl Lacilla on musa (medieval bagpipe) and frestel (medieval Pan pipe); and kindly agreed to the following interview for Early Music Muse.

Cristina performs internationally solo and with medieval music groups Magister Petrus, La Douce Semblance, Le Souvenir, Carmina Harmonica, Sonus Hyspaniae and Hamelin Consort; and gives courses and master classes on medieval music and medieval keyboards around Europe. She is assistant director and faculty member of Medieval Music Besalú, the international course on medieval music performance in Besalú, Catalonia, a teacher at the Centre International de Musiques Médiévales de Montpellier, France, and currently a doctoral student at the University of Würzburg, Germany.

In this interview, Cristina discusses how she discovered medieval keyboards; her research into the portative organ and her commissioning of the only 13^th century reconstruction; its playing techniques within the framework of medieval musical styles; its performance context in the middle ages; and performance presentation to a modern audience.

This article includes three videos of Cristina playing: table organ, clavicytherium, and portative organ.