JULIAN RHODES' DREAM ORGANS
PROPOSALS WHICH REMAINED ON PAPER

PÉDALE (2 octaves)
    32      Flûte Ouverte
    16      Flûte
     8      Flûte
     8      Flûte (harmonic pipes, 16ft. length)
    5 1/3   Gros Nazard Octaviant
     4      Flûte
     4      Flûte (harmonic pipes, 8ft. length)   
     2      Flûte (harmonic pipes, 4ft. length)
    16      Bombarde
     8      Trompette
     8      Cor de Chasse
     4      Clairon
     2      Clairon, octave higher
     1      Clairon, two octaves higher
     -      Grosse Caisse, Cymbales and Chapeau Chinois
     -      Caisse roulante
 
I POSITIF (54 notes, own case in positif-de-dos position)
     V      Cornet
    16      Bourdon
     8      Montre
     8      Flûte
     4      Prestant
     4      Flûte
    2 2/3   Nazard
     2      Doublette
     2      Quarte
    1 3/5   Tierce
    1 1/3   Larigot
     V      Fourniture
    IV      Cymbale
     8      Trompette
     8      Basson
 
II GRAND-ORGUE (54 notes)
    IX      Grand Cornet
    32      Montre (from 24ft. F)
    16      Montre
    16      Bourdon
     8      Montre
     8      Violoncelle
     8      Bourdon
     8      Flûte Ouverte
    5 1/3   Gros Nazard
     4      Prestant
     4      Flûte
    2 2/3   Nazard
     2      Doublette
     2      Quarte
    1 3/5   Tierce
    IV      Grosse Fourniture
    IV      Grosse Cymbale
    IV      Fourniture
    VI      Cymbale
     8      Trompette à Pavillon
 
III BOMBARDE (54 notes)
    IX      Grand Cornet
    16      Flûte
     8      Flûte
     4      Prestant
     4      Flûte
    2 2/3   Nazard
     2      Quarte
    1 3/5   Tierce
    16      Bombarde
     8      Trompette
     4      Clairon
            mounted horizontally outside the organ case:
     8      Trompette
     4      Clairon (with one break)
     2      Clairon (with two breaks)
     1      Clairon (with three breaks)
 
IV RÉCIT (37 notes, F to F, unenclosed)
     8      Flûte Conique
     8      Bourdon
    VI      Cornet
     8      Trompette
     8      Hautbois
            jeux expressifs - free-reed stops:
     8      Basson
     8      Cor Anglais/Hautbois
     8      Voix Humaine
     8      Trompette - expressive, mounted outside
     -      Bells
 
V ÉCHO (37 notes, F to F, enclosed)
    16      Bourdon
     8      Flûte (Ouverte)
     8      Flûte Traversière
     4      Flûte
     V      Cornet
     8      Violon
    16      Voix Humaine
     8      Clarinette
 
Three pedal contols, "permitting coupling two or three manuals together".
 
Three pedals controlling:
  i) Grosse Caisse, Cymbale and Chapeau Chinois
 ii) Caisse Roulante
iii) Echo shutters
 
Pedal for controlling the wind on the jeux expressifs.
 
The Grand-Orgue and Bombarde windchests to form a single unit. The Bombarde 
to be supplied with higher pressure wind than the Grand Orgue, as appropriate 
to the reed-stops.
 
The bass pipes of the Montre 32, Montre 16 and Bombarde Flûte 16 to be 
placed on a separate chest, and controlled by a pedal or drawstop to play 
on manual or pedal.
 
The Récit chest to be sited beneath the Grand-Orgue; the Écho chest 
to be sited above it.

Cavaillé-Coll claimed that the sound of harmonic/overblown pipes was eight times greater than that of conventional pipes, and thereby justified the presence of such bulky pipes in the Pedal division. Note that there were to be no harmonic flutes in the manual divisions.

Note also the presence of horizontal reed stops in the Bombarde division, and the Spanish character of their pitches. The Grand-Orgue had but a single 8ft. Trompette; in later drafts of the scheme the Bombarde reeds were altered to 16.8.8.4.4 inside the case, and the number of Grand-Orgue reeds was increased.

The Récit was to consist of a classical group of unenclosed registers as well as several free-reed 'jeux expressifs'. The latter, including a Trompette mounted horizontally outside the case, would have a pedal to control their dynamic range. These stops were derived from contemporary experiments in harmoniums and other free-reed instruments.

Overall, the scheme is an interesting blend of traditional features - the mutations and mixtures, the short-compass Récit and Écho, the positif-de-dos - with such innovations as the free-reeds, the harmonic pipes, and the placing of the Pédale, Grand-Orgue and Bombarde reeds on a higher pressure than the flues. Within a few months the scheme had been pruned from 81 stops to 71, and this revised stoplist became the basis for the instrument as completed in 1841. By this time it benefitted from the application of the Barker lever, a still greater range of wind-pressures, and a larger selection of couplers.

Source:
'Cavaillé-Coll and the French Romantic Tradition', Fenner Douglas, Yale University Press 1999. ISBN 0-300-07114-0. Douglass gives the stoplist as presented in Cavaillé-Coll's first book of contracts. Many registers have no pitch specified. I have supplied these, and normalised the written order of the stops.

Back to the index of organ proposals  |  Back to the index of organ designs & stoplists  |  Back to the front page