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

DICTIONARY OF ORGAN STOPS. "5
R.
Ranket—Sordun. 8 ft. ; Gross Ranket, 16 ft.
A variety of Chalumeau used at a very early date. The
pipes were capped at the top, a few small holes being opened
in the side. Sometimes the Ranket was a double pipe—one
pipe being inside of, and opening into, another. A similar
device has recently been employed for a chamber organ Vox
Humana. The effect of this treatment was to render the
tone of the Ranket smothered and "bottled up." There is
often a tendency toward a similar effect in modern capped
chorus reeds. It is curious to note how old ideas are
rejuvenated. The Ranked and other capped reeds with vents
cut in the side are mentioned in Prsetorius' work (1619).
Yet,
notwithstanding the fact that capped reeds have consistently
figured in Germany and elsewhere, ever since, one firm of
organ builders, in-i885, actually patented the process of capping
pipes "to keep out the dust and increase the mellowness of
the sound !
"
RAUSCHQUINT — - Rauschquarte, Rauschflote, Rausch-
pfeife, Rauschwerk, Quarte. (Ger.) Rauschen = to
rustle or rush.
A Twelfth and Fifteenth combined on one slide. Other
compositions have been known, viz., 2 ft. and 1^ ft., and III or
IV ranks, but the most authentic definition is as above. The
interval separating the two ranks is a fourth, hence the name Ranket.
Quarte. A slight stretch of imagination causes the stop to
assume a " rustling " effect, whence the prefix, Rausch. It was formerly a
common custom of Continental and English builders to unite the two
stops on one slide. But sometimes the thin whistling effect of the Great
up to the Fifteenth, without the bell-like cohesion which should be
imparted by the Twelfth, is required. Occasionally, also, a Twelfth, of
suitable character, can effectively be employed without necessarily being
associated with the Fifteenth (see Harmonic Stopped Twelfth). The
two stops, accordingly, are now generally controlled by separate sliders.
Recorder—4 ft.
The instrument of this name was of the Flute tribe. The name is
said to be derived from an obsolete meaning of the verb to record, viz., to
warble. Dallam's specification of an organ erected in York Minster in
1632 contains the following passage: "Item, one recorder unison to the
said principall. vL li." It was probably an ordinary Flute.