No one had ever heard its "voice"
before: a warm, ancient sound similar to that of a flute
conveying notes without hesitation.
Under the wide windows of Palazzina Liberty, in the heart of
Milan, Leonardo Da Vinci's Great Continuous Organ will be heard
for the first time.
The instrument is of sophisticated design and fed by a unique
pedal mechanism that allows the music to play in a continuous
manner without taking their hands off the keyboard.
Centro Studi Leonardo 3 experts were the ones to reconstruct
it five centuries later on the basis of the Foglio 76r drawings,
bringing a new addition to the most complete collection of Da
Vinci musical instruments in the world.
The collection is exhibited at the museum in Piazza della
Scala.
From the gigantic trumpet to the musical cannon, every work
by Da Vinci shows him to have been a 'mechanic' of music, ever
in search of new technological solutions to facilitate the
musician's work as well as endow the instruments themselves with
energy.
"Take, for example the clavi-viola, which was to have bene
played by making use of the energy generated by the musician
walking," said Edoardo Zanon, co-founder and co-scientific
director of Leonardo3. divided inside of them
"Or the continuous organ, where the air flow was ensured by
two double bellows," he added.
How the instrument works was shown by Saverio Tamburini, an
expert in organs who took part in the reconstruction thanks to
the centuries-long tradition and experience in his family.
He noted that the "instrument does not need external sources
of energy. You just need to use your legs and playing it is not
tiring."
Among those listening was culture councillor Filippo Del
Corno, musician himself as well as a politician, who noted that
music had linked Da Vinci with Milan, "since in his letter of
introduction to Ludovico the Moor he noted his musical skills".
As a skilled master of ceremonies, Da Vinci probably planned
the organ for court celebrations, making use of the double
bellows "to solve the problem of a lack of air that was typical
of larger organs and that often required the presence of
operators for air production during the musical performance,"
Zanon said.
The double bellows design was later used by Da Vinci for two
other instruments designed on the same page.
"We often remember Da Vinci as a musician, referring to what
Vasari wrote," the expert said, "but perhaps the most important
aspect is his activities as instrument designer, always ready to
mix technologies even very different from one another to get
unprecedented abilities, like his flying machines did."
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