Combination
The Fond d’orgue
The union of all the organ’s foundation stops, without mutations or reeds, and the name of the solemn pieces written for this combination.
Combination
What it is
Fond d’orgue is the name for the union of all the foundation stops and, by extension, for the pieces that use this registration. Foundation, or octave, stops are those that sound at the pitch of the note played or at its octaves: montres, 8-foot stops, bourdons, flutes and prestants.
Dom Bedos makes it up thus: the montres, bourdons, open 8-foot stops, 4-foot flutes and prestants, on the great organ as on the positive, with the keyboards coupled and all the foundation stops of the pedal. No mutation or reed is included.
L'Art du facteur d'orgues
What Dom Bedos says
Celui-ci est regardé comme le fondement & le véritable ton de l’Orgue. Il est à l’unisson de la voix naturelle de l’homme, & de presque tous les instruments de Musique [...]. Les autres Jeux de l’Orgue ne sont, pour ainsi dire, imaginés que pour soutenir & orner le 8 pieds.
TranslationThis is regarded as the foundation and the true pitch of the Organ. It is in unison with the natural voice of man, and with almost all musical instruments [...]. The other stops of the Organ are, so to speak, devised only to support and adorn the 8-foot.
In practice
In the music of the Couperins and their contemporaries
The fond d’orgue calls for a moderate tempo: Dom Bedos observes that combinations including the organ’s foundation stops, and above all the large ones, make no effect if played fast. He forbids the tremblant doux in it, a practice he attributes to organists without taste.
The same foundations, reduced to the “two 8-foot stops”, also accompany every récit, and Dom Bedos imitates the transverse flute by drawing all the 8-foot stops of both keyboards, without prestant or 16-foot.
The works
In the repertoire
2 works in the project’s repertoire bear this name in their title.
Louis Marchand (1669–1732)
See also
- Montre and Prestant →Foundation stop
- Bourdon →Foundation stop
- Plein jeu →Combination
- All the stops →
Sources
- Dom Bedos de Celles, L’Art du facteur d’orgues, Ire partie, Paris, 1766 (texte de l’exemplaire BnF, IMSLP)
- Dom Bedos de Celles, L’Art du facteur d’orgues, IIIe partie, chap. IV, « Les principaux mêlanges ordinaires des Jeux de l’Orgue », Paris, 1770 (transcription Wikisource)
- Wikipédia, « Glossaire de l’orgue »
The musical programme of the Chaumes-en-Brie organ aims to serve this repertoire; its specification will be defined with the selected organ builder.