A comprehensive dictionary of organ stops - Allen Organ Studio of ...

102 DICTIONARY OF ORGAN STOPS.
grooved out, and then jointed up. The mouth was inverted, and the cap
fixed slantwise. See also Flauto Traverso. The author well remembers
a Stopped Metallic of beautifully mellow tone at Brighton College (Bishop).
Other examples were inserted at Brompton Oratory, Bombay Cathedral,
etc. (Bishop).
Minerici
—
2% ft. Merseburg Cathedral. An octave Quint.
Mittelgedackt— (Ger.) Mittel = middle. 8 ft.
A Gedeckt of medium power.
JVIixtupe— (Lat.) Miscere = to mix.
Mixture stops are sometimes known by the generic name of Compound
Stops, because they are compounded of two or more ranks of pipes, of
disparate pitch. In the earlier stages of the evolution of the organ, as the
instrument increased in magnitude and importance, it became customary
to unite with the Diapasons, under the control of each individual key,
several subsidiary pipes sounding octaves and fifths, and later thirds, to
them. It was felt, no doubt, that the rather bare effect resulting from the
mere duplication of octaves could, in some measure, be palliated or
modified, the tone rendered of a more homogeneous character, by the
introduction of fifth-sounding pipes. There is absolutely no reason to
suppose that our forefathers were ignorant of the existence of the harmonic
system, although Helmholtz was the first to evolve the scientific theory of
the influence of overtones on tone quality. Hence the introduction of
Mutation pipes may reasonably be regarded as a practical recognition of
the laws of Nature, and not as mere empiricism. When, by the respective
inventions of Timotheus and Agricola, facilities were afforded for the
control of separate ranks of pipes by means of stop *-sliders, the principal
sets of pipes were isolated, but the subsidiary ranks were lumped together
on one slider, being considered, it would appear, as unworthy, or outside
the necessity, of separation. In this wise originated the use of compound
stops.
But presently the Mixture became subjected to a curiously artificial
usage. There is some indirect evidence to show that in the period pre-
ceding the religious cataclysm, commonly known as the Continental
" Reformation," the organ was not used to accompany the voices of the
congregation. It was sometimes used to accompany the choir, but more
often to take the place of singing altogether. It seems that it was
customary for the verses of the Psalms to be taken alternately by the choir
and the organ, and in the XVth and XVIth Centuries there is constant
* It is curious how the negative aspect of the process still survives in the name. The
stop-slider is a mechanical device for stopping the ingress of wind to the pipes. The
function of the stop handle was thus originally regarded as that of silencing a rank of
pipes, not, as now, of serving to bring it into operation.