Sesquialtera

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The Sesquialtera , also Sesquialter , is the name of an organ register . It is usually built in two rows from a fifth and a third ( 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ + 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′). It is a mixed aliquot register .

Surname

The name does not come from the sixth interval between the two choirs (the term "Sexquialtera" was also in use) , as is sometimes erroneously claimed, but from the Latin word for "one and a half" (sesquialter, -altera, -alterum) and therefore denotes originally only the fifth (the string length ratio 3: 2 on the monochord ) and not the third (5: 4), which would be called sesquiquarta, although this is an uncommon term. In the music theory of Boethius, which was authoritative for the Middle Ages, it says in Book 1, Chapter 4: Secundum vero inaequalitatis genus est quod appellatur superparticulare, id est cum major numerus minorem numerum habet in se totum, et unam ejus aliquam partem, eamque vel dimidiam, ut tres duorum, et vocatur sesquialtera proportio, vel tertiam, ut quatuor ad tres, et vocatur sesquitertia. (“The second kind of inequality is what is called over-dividing, that is, when the larger number fully understands the smaller one and a certain part of it, namely either half, like three to two, and this ratio is called Sesquialtera, or a third, like four to three, and this is called Sesquitertia. ")

Since the pipe proportions of the fifth and third are 5: 3, the name “Sesquialtera” is unclear.

When Balthazar King , the Sesquialtera alternatively as Solcena referred.

history

The Sesquialtera is first mentioned in 1590 in a contract with Floris Hocque (t) for an organ in Trier Cathedral . In the first decades of the 17th century the register spread to Westphalia, the Netherlands, northern and central Germany and France. The sesquialtera proposed by Michael Praetorius in his Organographia in 1619 was planned by Gottfried Frietzsch in the Marienkirche Wolfenbüttel in 1624 . Frietzsch also introduced them to Hamburg and the surrounding area. The oldest surviving Sesquialteras are in the organ of the Ludgerikirche Norden ( Edo Evers , 1618) and in the organ of the main church Sankt Jacobi (Hamburg) (Frietzsch, 1635–1636). The sesquialtera found its way into Italy from 1649 and into England from 1660.

In France in the 17th century it was built in a single row as a third, to which the fifth could be added. In Westphalia, on the other hand, the three-row construction was characteristic, in England and southern Germany even three to five rows were put together. In the baroque era the sesquialtera was seldom part of the pedals; from the end of the 19th century, however, as 5 1 ⁄ 3  ′ and 3 1 ⁄ 5  ′. A wide scale was used in Johann Gottlob Töpfer's entourage . From 1950 on there was a threefold sesquialtera in Germany, with a third choir as a seventh or ninth.

Construction

Usually they are built like a principle, i.e. from cylindrically open labial pipes of medium length. But they are also made with a wider scale. From the 18th century, the composition 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ and 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′ is the rule. The sesquialtera in the composition 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ and 4 ⁄ 5 ′ usually repeats . In small organs in particular, the register is often only available as half a register for the treble half of the manual. Depending on the design, it can be used either as a pure solo register or to form a third plenum. Together with 8 ', 4' and 2 'principals or flutes, a cornet can be formed, which is why the sesquialtera was equated with the labial cornet in the 17th century.

Examples of a three-row sesquialtera
left: 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ + 2 ′ + 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
right: 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ + 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′ + 1 1 ⁄ 7  ′ (Septimensesquialtera)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Oscar Paul: Des Ancius Manlius Severinus Boetius five books on music. Leuckart, Leipzig 1872, p. 11 ( online ).
  2. ↑ a b Eberlein: Organ register. 2016, p. 596.
  3. ↑ Hermann Fischer , Theodor Wohnhaas : The organ builder families König in Ingolstadt, Münstereifel and Cologne . In: Roland Behrens and Christoph Grohmann (eds.): Dulce melos Organorum, Festschrift Alfred Reichling for his 70th birthday . Society of Organ Friends, Mettlach 2005, p. 111-168, here: pp. 141-143, 146, 150-151 .
  4. ↑ Gustav Fock : Hamburg's share in organ building in the Low German cultural area . In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History . No. 38 , 1939, pp. 346 ( online ).
  5. ↑ Eberlein: Organ register. 2016, p. 600.
  6. ↑ a b Eberlein: Organ register. 2016, p. 597.