Reed stop · 8 ft (very short resonators)
The Voix humaine
A reed stop with very short, half-covered resonators, which seeks to imitate the singing voice and is played with the tremblant doux.
Reed stop
What it is
The voix humaine is a reed stop of tin, running the full compass. Its resonators are very short (the first is usually only six inches tall), and yet it sounds at 8-foot pitch, because its reeds are like those of the trompettes. The pipe is built like that of the cromorne, but half-covered at the top, “so that it is less shrill, and imitates better the natural voice of man”.
The stop has no fixed measurements: each builder gives it the dimensions and shape he thinks best. It is placed indifferently on the positive or on the great organ.
L'Art du facteur d'orgues
What Dom Bedos says
Ce Jeu n’a aucune mesure fixe ; chaque Facteur lui donne les dimensions & la figure qu’il s’imagine être la meilleure ; aussi il n’est pas question d’y chercher de l’harmonie. Sa bonté consiste à imiter aussi parfaitement qu’on peut le desirer, la voix naturelle de l’homme. On y réussit rarement ; mais quand on en vient à bout, c’est un Jeu fort agréable.
TranslationThis stop has no fixed measurements; each Builder gives it the dimensions and shape he imagines best; so there is no question of seeking fine tone in it. Its merit lies in imitating the natural voice of man as perfectly as one could wish. This is rarely achieved; but when it is, it is a very pleasing stop.
In practice
In the music of the Couperins and their contemporaries
“With the Voix humaine, or Regal, one needs only the Bourdon and the flute, both above and below, and the tremblant doux,” wrote Boyvin in 1690. Dom Bedos, in 1770, says much the same: on the great organ, the bourdon, the 4-foot flute and the voix humaine, with the tremblant doux; on the positive, the two 8-foot stops for the accompaniment.
He advises playing it as a simple dialogue of treble and bass, then joining the parts, always imitating the natural and simple way of singing, and keeping within the compass of voices. It is, he says, the only case in which organists of taste use the tremblant doux. François Couperin wrote a dialogue sur la voix humaine in each of his two masses.
The works
In the repertoire
2 works in the project’s repertoire bear this name in their title.
François Couperin (1668–1733)
See also
- Tremulants →Accessory
- Cromorne →Reed stop
- Dialogue →Registration
- 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, « Voix humaine (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.