Strings

From the 16th century onwards, organ builders increasingly tried to recreate the sounds of other instruments. While the imitation of wind instruments by organ stops naturally succeeded rather soon - and often deceptively similar - there was a special challenge in the imitation of the sound of string instruments. In order to get close to the string sound, not only the relatively overtone-rich string tone itself, but also the accompanying sound components such as the specific sounds of the bow stroke across the string had to be imitated, to even remotely convey the sound impression of a string instrument.

This was not easy by means of any organ pipe, because its own, relatively low-harmonic sound character was very far away from this goal. Most organ builders finally followed the path of developing pipes with an extremely narrow scale, which sounded as many harmonics as possible. The labial cuttings were chosen in such a way that relatively clearly audible blowing noises gave the impression of a bow stroke. However, this led to the problem of a slow and significantly delayed sound attack. Thus, such ranks could only be played at a rather quiet pace and primarily as solo voices. But this was quite in line with the expected effect expected - to touch the listeners with their unexpected and ethereal sound.

The most popular string register in the organ was also the one that was the most difficult to get into action: the viola da gamba or gamba for short. The viola da gamba was considered to be the organ stop with the narrowest possible scale, which the fundamental note still present - its pipe diameter was only about half of a principal register. Mostly cylindrical, some organ builders cultivated a tapered pipe shape under the name "Spitzgamba". Often these pipes could only be made to sound with special aids, so-called beards. It is noteworthy that this organ register became more and more popular at a time when the instrument itself, which it imitated was about to fall out of fashion.

In general, the registers that reproduced the instruments of the violin family were given a slightly wider scale: "Violin" or "Viola" differed only in nuances of the brightness of their sound, while the "Violoncello" (usually 8', pedal) and especially the "Violon" (16', pedal) should deliver a noticeably more prominen<t fundamental and thus mensurated slightly wider.

A second group of string registers is not named after string instruments, but rather flute instruments from folk music: the "Salizional" (from Latin salix, willow, willow pipe) and the "Fugara" (possibly from Fujara, a flute type still occurring in Slovakia today). The models also have relatively narrow scales and rich harmonic sounds.

The real home of these string voices was the German-speaking south. Instruments with only about 10 to 15 stops had a viola da gamba in the manual; in larger instruments with a more extended pedal, the "Violon bass" was indispensable.

This group was at first almost unknown in other regions and was further disseminated during the 19th century - then, however, as a tonal feature generally associated with the sounds of the romantic organ. The string stops were among the features typical of different organ landscapes, which for example distinguished a South German from a North German, French or Italian organ of the Baroque.