Editing Short octave (section)

==Music written specifically for short-octave instruments==
{{Image frame
|caption=Peter Philips, "Così morirò", Nr. LXXII of the<br />''[[Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]]'', last 2 bars; the final<br />chord in the left hand is only in reasonable<br />reach on a short octave instrument.
|content=<score>
% Score borrowed from [[:de:Kurze Oktave]].
{
\new PianoStaff <<
  \new Staff <<
    \new Voice { \voiceOne \relative c'' { \clef "treble" \time 2/2 \key c \major | \stemUp c8 [ \stemUp a8 ] \stemUp e'4 \stemUp a,4 \stemUp c4 | <b, e b'>1 \bar "|." }}
    \new Voice {  \voiceTwo \relative c' { \clef "treble" \time 2/2 \key c \major | r2 \stemDown c8 [ \stemDown a8 ] \stemDown e'4 s1 \bar "|." }}
  >>
  \new Staff <<
    \new Voice {  \voiceOne \relative a { \clef "bass" \time 2/2 \key c \major | r4 r8 \stemUp a8 r4 r8 \stemUp a8 | <e, b' e gis>1 \bar "|." }}
    \new Voice {  \voiceTwo \relative a, { \clef "bass" \time 2/2 \key c \major | \stemDown <a e'>2 ~ ~ \stemDown <a e'>2 s1 \bar "|." }}
  >>
>>
}
</score>}}
While the short octave seems primarily to have been an economy measure, it does have the advantage that the player's left hand can in certain cases span a greater number of notes. The composer [[Peter Philips]] wrote a [[pavane]] in which the left hand plays many parallel tenths. This is a considerable stretch for many players, and become even harder when (as in Philips's pavane), there sometimes other notes included in the chord. Of this piece harpsichord scholar [[Edward Kottick]] writes, "The sensuality of effortlessly achieving tenths is so strong, so delightful, that one cannot really claim to know the piece unless it has been played on a short-octave keyboard."{{efn|1=Reference for Philips as well as quotation: {{harvtxt|Kottick|2003|p=40}}. The full Pavane ("Pavana Dolorosa") may be found starting on [https://archive.org/details/fitzwilliamvirgi0001unse_y7y3/page/320/mode/2up p. 321] of the {{harvtxt|Fuller Maitland|Squire|1963}} edition of the ''[[Fitzwilliam Virginal Book]]'' vol. 1. Fuller Maitland and Squire likewise noticed ([https://archive.org/details/fitzwilliamvirgi0001unse_y7y3/page/n23/mode/2up pp. xvii–xviii]) that Philips's works require a short-octave instrument and indeed there two other pieces by Philips in this work (pp. [https://archive.org/details/fitzwilliamvirgi0001unse_y7y3/page/286/mode/2up 286 "Così morirò"], [https://archive.org/details/fitzwilliamvirgi0001unse_y7y3/page/326/mode/2up 327 "Galiarda Dolorosa"]) of this type.}}

A later composer who wrote music conveniently playable only on a broken-octave instrument was [[Joseph Haydn]], whose early work for keyboard was intended for harpsichord, not piano.<ref name=G-VII /> As {{harvtxt|Gerlach|2007}} points out, Haydn's "Capriccio in G on the folk song '{{Lang|de|Acht Sauschneider müssen sein}}{{'"}}, [[Hoboken catalogue|H.]] XVII:1 (1765) is evidently written for a harpsichord employing the Viennese bass octave. The work terminates in a chord in which the player's left hand must cover a low G, the G an octave above it, and the B two notes higher still. On orthodox keyboards this would be an impossible stretch for most players, but as on the Viennese bass octave it would have been easy to play, with the fingers depressing keys that visually appeared as D–G–B (see diagram above).

When Haydn's Capriccio was published by [[Artaria]] in the 1780s, the Viennese bass octave had mostly disappeared (indeed, the harpsichord itself was becoming obsolete). The publisher accordingly included alternative notes in the places where the original version could be played only on a short octave instrument, presumably to accommodate the needs of purchasers who owned a harpsichord or piano with the ordinary chromatic bass octave.<ref name=G-VII>{{harvp|Gerlach|2007|loc=VII}}</ref>