Muted Violin Céleste English

Listed only by Irwin, who says:

An 8' undulating stop on the manuals, formed from two, preferably three, ranks of Muted Violin pipes. If two, they are normal-sharp, normal-flat, or sharp-flat in pitches, the last pattern denying the organist a single rank for combination. The normal-sharp-very sharp pattern reproduces the orchestral effect very realistically. These ranks need not be more than one or two beats per second from the normal pitch, and will not therefore sound too sharp in combinations. An additional three-rank céleste made from this same stop and tuned to be normal-flat-very flat, if added to the three-rank sharp céleste above, would create the most realistic orchestral effect possible, and it is from these muted pipes that one of the most realistic String sounds comes, since the ear remembers the violins of the orchestra most ideally as soft. This soft céleste, whether two, three, or six ranks, is usually found only in the String Organ, since it gives out too much dissonance, even though quite pleasant to the ear, to combine well with other divisions.
. . .
The muted violins of the organ appeal to some organists as the most usable of the stops of this family of tone. The intense Viole d'Orchestre, although it can be given any timbre, acuteness, loudness, or pitch desired, mixes best with other String stops. The String stops of the church organ must be able to blend with many other stops. This excludes the most small-scaled and incisive, but not necessarily the imitative, muted, or otherwise. The Muted Violin Céleste is formed from an alloy high in tin content, of quite small scale, and very low mouth cut-up.

Examples

None known. Contributions welcome.

Bibliography

Irwin[1]: Celeste; Muted Violin Céleste.
 
Copyright © 1999 Edward L. Stauff, all rights reserved.
MutedViolinCeleste.html - Last updated 30 March 2000.
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