Short octave

Short octave (Fr.: octave courte; Ger.: kurze Oktave; obs. It.: mi re ut), arrangement for saving space and pipes in the lowest octave of organs, both in manuals and pedal, by omitting unneeded keys and pipes. This arrangement seems to have been known by the 14th c. and was taken over by stringed keyboard instrs. by the late 15th c. (Ramis de Pareja); both types of instr. retained them in some instances as late as the 18th c. When manual and pedal compass of organs was extended downward from C…