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

DICTIONARY OF ORGAN STOPS. 1 63
the improved reed work of Willis, rendered necessary a corresponding
expansion a( the tonal functions of the fluework of the said department.
At the time when it became the custom to introduce the Trumpet as the
Great organ primary reed, the reed-work of the Swell had not yet attained
to its present dignity or pitch of perfection. And, further, as has been
pointed out (see sub Mixture), the whole principal of tonal design was
then conducted on a radically dissimilar basis. Power was secured by the
so-called extension of the foundation of the organ by Fifteenths, Mixtures,
and so forth. Now that mere mechanical limitations no longer offer impediment
to the development of tonal design along natural channels, we aim
at cohesion and homogenity of tone, striving that the many may become
one instead of the one diverging into the many. It is with a view to the
realization of this ideal that the modern school has introduced the Tibia
(ff.v.) class of tone, u».ges so insistently the necessity of smoothness of tone
in chorus reedwork, and even goes to the length of building up the greater
portion of the necessary brilliancy of the organ direct from the foundation
work itself, instead of by the external application of a disproportionate
amount of heterogeneous Mixture-work.
On a well-equipped Choir organ, such as is found in French instruments,
in the capacity of a soft chorus reed, a quiet Trumpet would be a decided
acquisition. Between the bass and treble of the old-fashioned Trumpet a
distressing hiatus is generally apparent. To secure purity of tone, and, at
the same time, to remedy this lack of balance, the treble should invariably
be of harmonic structure, the stop being planted on a fair wind pressure.
Needless to say, the orchestral Trumpet is more closely represented by a
soft, smooth Tuba, than by the organ Trumpet. The Double Trumpet is
usually either identical with, or slightly more powerful than, the Contra
Fagotto. For Harmonic Trumpet, see Tuba.
Tlllba.—Tuba Mirabilis 8 ft.; also 16 ft.; 4 ft. (Lat.) Tuba =
Trumpet. (Russ.) Truba ; (Bohem.) Truba, Trauba are related to
(Lat.) Tuba, as (It.) tronare to (Lat.) tonare. (Lithuanian) Truba
= a herdsman's horn ; (Portuguese) Trupetar = to make a noise.
The introduction of the r accounts for such radically identical
names as Trumpet, Trombone, Tromba.
The Tuba is a reed stop of extremely powerful tone ; it is, in fact, the
most powerful stop on the organ. It is voiced on heavy wind pressure, the
exact intensity of which is dependent on the size of the edifice and style
of voicing affected. The lowest pressure on which a Tuba Mirabilis (i.e. as
distinct from the Tromba or Tuba Minor, is planted, is about 7 ins. or
8 ins. The first Tuba, yclept Ophicleide, was introduced by Messrs. Hill
at Birmingham Town Hall (1835) on a wind pressure of about n ins. or
12 ins. Considerably higher pressure— 15 ins. or 20 ins.—is now frequently