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

DICTIONARY OF ORGAN STOPS. T
Flauto Traverso-Flute Allemande, Flute
Traversiere, German Flute, Piffaro, Querflote, Quer-
pfeife, Traversfiote, Vienna Flute, Wienerflote, etc. (Fr.)
Allemande = German. (Lat.) Transversus or Traver-
sus = across. (Ger.) Quer = across. Piffaro is
onomatopoeic, being derived from the "piff" or the
lip tone accompanying the speech of the pipe. Vienna
(Wien) Flute is an appellation lacking any historical
foundation. 4 ft. . sometimes 8 ft.; rarely 2 ft.
The Flauto Traverso is intended to represent the orchestral
Flute player. By means of the slight lip tone above mentioned,
the stop can be made perhaps one of the closest orchestral
imitations on the organ. (See Flute Octaviante). This
type of tone does not exercise a beneficial effect in combination,
and is therefore not encouraged now-a-days. The name
Flauto Traverso has been applied to many varieties of Flute
it is now usually attached to a soft-toned and small-scaled
Harmonic Flute suitable for the Choir organ. It is now, with
but rare exceptions, made of metal, since wooden Harmonic
Flutes are more troublesome to make and voice. Nevertheless,
some good specimens have been made of the latter material
by Mr. Compton of Nottingham. In many ancient Continental
organs there are still to be seen Flutes of peculiar form and
structure. Sometimes they are conical, sometimes cylindrical
and bored out of solid wood, occasionally triangular or widen-
ing like the Portunal. They are usually fashioned of pear-tree
or maple wood, sometimes of box or cypress. Frequently they
are elaborately carved, even though the pipes be not exposed
to view (e.g., Haarlem, Weingarten), a fact only in keeping
with the wonderfully conscientious and artistic nature of the
work of the organ builders living in an age when remorseless
competition had not yet arisen. Some of these stops are
"naturally" harmonic, i.e., caused to overblow by means ot
a narrow low mouth and copious winding. The cylindrical
harmonic Flauto Traverso (e.g., by Schulze at Doncaster, Tyne
Dock, etc.) bored out of solid wood, is now no longer made.
The mouth consisted of a slit cut in the pipe, and, on account
of the difficulty of regulating the exact height, often covered
with a strip of parchment to serve as the upper lip. The
block was merely a cork bung. The author once saw such a
stop, burnt out of solid mahogany, in an organ built by an Indian officer,
and has in his possession similar pipes of bamboo.
Miiller of Breslau, again, introduced a variety of Flute in which the
;
W
Fig. A-
Flauio
Traverso
(wood),
showing
inverted
mouth.