Flûte Conique French Flûte Pyramidale French

The earliest known examples of Flûte Conique were made by Cavaillé-Coll at 16', 8' and 4' pitch. They were metal flutes of inverted conical form; that is, wider at the top than at the mouth. Audsley cites the examples at Saint-Sulpice, but incorrectly describes them as Spitzflötes, which are conical. Wedgwood describes the tone of the Flûte Conique as “very hard and powerful”. Irwin lists it as a synonym for Conical Flute. Maclean reports that some stoplists for St. Sulpice list its examples as Flûte Pyramidale; he describes them as medium-large scale conical flutes.

Examples

Osiris contains two dozen examples of Flûte Conique at 8' pitch, three dozen at 4', twelve at 16', five at 2', and one at 1'. The form of the pipes are unknown, except where noted. No examples of Flûte Pyramidale are known.

Flute Conique 8', Grand Orgue; St. Denis, Paris, France; Cavaillé-Coll? 1857. Inverted-conical; apparently still extant.

Flûte Conique 16', Grand Orgue, Solo; St. Sulpice, Paris, France; Cavaillé-Coll 1862, 1883. Inverted conical.

Flute Conique 4', Echo Expressif; St. Etienne-du-Mont, Paris, France; Pescheur 1631-36, Somer 1766-71, Clicquot 1772, Cavaillé-Coll 1873.

Flute Conique 8', Positif; Great Hall, Tchaikovskij Conservatory, Moscow, Russia; Cavaillé-Coll 1899.

Flute Conique 16', Great; Royal Albert Hall, London, England; Willis 1872. Partly harmonic.

Bibliography