STRINGS.
Under this head are grouped the stops which imitate the tones of such stringed instruments as the Viola, the Violoncello, the Double Bass, and more especially the old form of Violoncello, called the Viol di Gamba, which had six strings and was more nasal in tone.
At the commencement of the period herein spoken of string-toned stops as we know them to-day scarcely existed. This family was practically represented by the Dulciana and by the old slow-speaking German Gamba. These Gambas were more like Diapasons than strings.
Edmund Schulze made an advance and produced some Gambas and Violones which, though of robust and full-bodied type, were pleasant and musical in tone. They were at the time deemed capable of string-like effects.
To William Thynne belongs the credit of a great step in advance. The string tones heard in the Michell and Thynne organ at the Liverpool, England, exhibition in 1886 were a revelation of the possibilities in this direction, and many organs subsequently introduced contained beautiful stops from his hands—notably the orchestral-toned instrument in the residence of J. Martin White, Dundee, Scotland—an ardent advocate of string tone. Years later Thynne's partner, Carlton C. Mitchell, produced much beautiful work in this direction. Hope-Jones founded his work on the Thynne model and by introducing smaller scales, bellied pipes and sundry improvements in detail, produced the keen and refined string stops now finding their way into all organs of importance. His delicate Viols are of exceedingly small scale (some examples measuring only 1 1/8 inches in diameter at the 8-foot note). They are met with under the names of Viol d' Orchestre, Viol Celeste and Dulcet.[10] These stops have contributed more than anything else towards the organ suitable for the performance of orchestral music.
Haskell has introduced several beautiful varieties of wood and metal stops of keen tone, perhaps the best known being the labial Oboe and Saxophone, commonly found in Estey organs. His work is destined to exert considerable influence upon the art.
Other string-toned stops found nowadays in organs are the Keraulophon, Aeoline, Gemshorn, Spitzflöte, Clariana, Fugara, Salicet, Salicional, and Erzähler.[11]
REEDS.
As remarked in our opening chapter, pipes with strips of cane or reeds in the mouthpiece are of great antiquity, being found side by side with the flutes in the Egyptian tombs. These reeds, as those used at the present day, were formed of the outer siliceous layer of a tall grass, Arundo donax, or sativa, which grows in Egypt and the south of Europe. They were frequently double, but the prototype of the reed organ-pipe is to be seen in the clarinet, where the reed is single and beats against the mouthpiece. Of course, an artificial mouthpiece has to be provided for our organ-pipe, but this is called the boot. See Figure 19, which shows the construction of a reed organ-pipe. A is the boot containing a tube called the eschallot B, partly cut away and the opening closed by a brass tongue C, which vibrates under pressure of the wind. D is the wire by which the tongue is tuned; E the body of the pipe which acts as a resonator.