ABSTRACT
What is a chamber organ? According to the Oxford English Dictionary it is 'a small organ suitable for a private room'. But how small, and how private? A chamber organ may be an unassuming instrument with a handful of stops, masquerading as a cabinet, or it may have many stops and dominate its surroundings. The term actually has little to do with size and everything to do with secular as opposed to ecclesiastical use. The essential point is that, historically, the chamber organ was used in the home - domestic music-making was and still is its raison d'être. The term 'house organ', which is also sometimes used (and will be found from time to time in this text), is often perhaps more accurate but somehow less evocative.
