Reed stop · 8 ft
The Trompette
The 8-foot reed stop with conical pipes, the most brilliant of the classical organ: the voice of the basse de trompette, the fugue grave and the grand jeu.
Reed stop
What it is
Reed stops, writes Dom Bedos, “are the most brilliant, and provide the chief splendour of the Organ”. Their sound comes from a reed: a brass tongue vibrating against a small brass channel. It is the resonator that gives each stop its character: when it is conical, wider at the top than at the bottom, the sound of the reed is greatly increased, as in a speaking-trumpet.
The trompette is an 8-foot reed of fine tin with conical resonators, running the full compass; it sounds in unison with the open 8-foot, an octave above the bombarde. Large organs have two, sometimes three, on the great organ; one is placed on the positive in organs of some size, and one in the pedal. Played on the récit keyboard, which has no bass, it becomes the “trompette de récit”. With the bombarde and the clairon it forms what is called the batterie d’anches.
L'Art du facteur d'orgues
What Dom Bedos says
La Trompette est un Jeu d’Anche de 8 pieds. On le fait en étain fin, & tous ses tuyaux sont coniques. Il parle une octave plus haut que la Bombarde, & à l’unisson du 8 pieds ouvert. Ce Jeu est fort éclatant & le plus brillant de l’Orgue.
TranslationThe Trompette is an 8-foot reed stop. It is made of fine tin, and all its pipes are conical. It speaks an octave higher than the Bombarde, and in unison with the open 8-foot. This stop is very bright and the most brilliant of the Organ.
In practice
In the music of the Couperins and their contemporaries
The trompette carries the basse de trompette, one of the most characteristic pieces of the repertoire: Boyvin plays it with the prestant and nazard, Dom Bedos with the prestant and the clairons. It is also the voice of the fugue grave: “Fugues graves are played on the Trompette accompanied by its foundation, which is the Bourdon and the Prestant,” writes Boyvin.
All the trompettes and clairons, with the cornet and prestant, make up the grand jeu. Dom Bedos also has it sing in the tenor on the positive, and gives the plainchant to the pedal trompettes and clairons, accompanied by the plein jeu.
The works
In the repertoire
9 works in the project’s repertoire bear this name in their title.
Jacques Boyvin (c. 1649–1706)
- Livre II - Basse de TrompetteListen
François Couperin (1668–1733)
Louis Marchand (1669–1732)
Gaspard Corrette (c. 1671–1732)
- Messe du 8e ton - Basse de TrompetteListen
Jean-Adam Guilain (c. 1680–1739)
- Suite du 1er ton - Basse de TrompetteListen
Livre d'orgue de Limoges (anonymous, copied c. 1710–1725)
- Dialogue de basse de trompette et de cornet
See also
- Basse de trompette →Registration
- Clairon →Reed stop
- Grand jeu →Combination
- Cromorne →Reed stop
- 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)
- Jacques Boyvin, Premier livre d’orgue, Paris, 1690, « Avis au public concernant le mélange des jeux de l’orgue » (transcription Wikisource)
- Wikipédia, « Trompette (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.