here is much evidence that can be recovered from consort organ soundboards regarding keyboard compass, even in those cases where the original compass has been altered. The following table represents information drawn from a variety of organs and also includes information on keyboard dividing points and stop controls.

The compass is represented as, for example, C AA D-c3 (this being the most common provision) meaning that the bottom key plays the note C, the next key (that would normally be C#) actually plays the note AA, the next key plays D and thereafter the notes run chromatically up to c3. This particular 49 note compass comfortably covers the full range of the bass/tenor/treble viol consort and also includes the low AA of the ‘great dooble bass’ viol. With the advent of the violin in string consorts, the upper range of string consorts did not in fact extend any higher, but we may note that the dividing point of the organ keyboard changed from b/c to c#/d as the century progressed, corresponding to the lowest strings of the treble viol (c) and violin (d) as commonly used in consort repertoire. This change provides further evidence that divided stops were intended to double the relatively weak treble instruments, especially in the dance-based repertoire.

The majority of organs had vertical stop levers mounted very close to the keyboard in the bass and treble keyboard slips. This enabled the organist to change registrations very quickly without having to move his hands far from the keys. This was a contrast with the contemporary church organ where stop knobs were mounted further away, either side of the music desk. This was necessary due to the greater forces required to move the stop mechanism of the bigger church instruments with their long mechanical runs. It points to a difference in registrational practice where liturgical registrations were generally preset and not changed during a movement, whereas the consort organist was able to change dynamic and tonal combinations to respond to the ‘humouring’ of the music by the strings during the course of a piece.