Page "Short octave" Paragraph 14

The 18th century author Quirinus van Blankenburg suggested that the C / E short octave originated as an extension of keyboards that went down only to F ; the addition of just one key ( nominal E ) and the reassignment of the F # and G # added three new notes to the bass range.

Van Blankenburg says that when the short octave was invented, it was called the " new extension " for this reason.

According to Frank Hubbard, harpsichords and organs of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries " almost always " had short octaves.