Contra Bourdon English Grand Bourdon English, French Gros Bourdon French Grossuntersatz German Major Bass English Majorbass German	Sub Bourdon English Soubasse French Sous Basse French Subbass German Subbasso Italian Untersatz German
Double Stopped Diapason English
Bordun-Subbass German Contrabass German? Dopplt Unterbass German Double-Stopped Bass English Infra Bass Latin	Grossholzflöt German Grosssubbass German Grossunterbass German Pileata Maxima Latin Thunbass German Unterbass German

These names have all been used denote a Bourdon pitched an octave lower, at 16' or 32'. Some, however, have alternate meanings:

Contrabass

This name is more commonly a synonym for Double Bass (a string). Adlung considered it a variety of Bourdon.

Grand Bourdon

This name also denotes a pedal mixture stop.

Major Bass

This name is also a synonym for Contra Principal. Audsley considered it to be stopped; Bonavia-Hunt and Wedgwood considered it to be open. Williams states that it was sometimes equivalent to a Coppel. Other authorities acknowledge the ambiguity of this name.

Sub Bass

According to Audsley, in England the Sub Bass could be open or stopped.

Untersatz

According to Grove and Williams, this name was used for large pipes placed below and behind the main chest (unter = "under"); these could be open or stopped pipes at 16' or 32'.

Several of these names are mentioned only by Adlung, and no examples are known other than those cited by him. Here are his words regarding those names:

Bordon-Subbass

In the pedal this stop [Bordun] is found, for example, in the Görlitz organ, where it is called Bordun-Subbass, since it is of the same size as a Subbass and thus can indeed take its place.

Grossholzflöt

[see Grossholzflöt for a quote from Adlung]

Grossunterbass, Doppelt Unterbass

The Grossunterbass 32' at St. Marien in Danzig, as well as the Doppelt Unterbass at the [Kirche zu] Unsrer Lieben Frau in Lübeck (see Praetorius, pp. 163 and 166) are both this sort of stop [Gedakt]"

Infrabass

see Contrabass

Thunbass

According to Praetorius the large Hohlflöte at 8' pitch was also given this name, from "thönen" ["to ring, to resound], because it was broad and ringing. It is also called Subbass or Koppel; see Praetorius, p. 132.

See also Contras Profundas, Sub Octave.

Variants

Examples

Osiris contains about two dozen examples of Contra Bourdon, all at 32' pitch except for one at 16', about 130 examples of Untersatz, and over 600 examples of Sub Bass. No examples of Double-Stopped Bass (mentioned only by Locher), Grosssubbass, or Infra Bass are known. Contributions welcome.

Gross-Untersatz 32', Pedal; Petrikirche, Freiberg, Germany; Silbermann 1735.

Gross Untersatz 32', Pedal; The Colloge of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA; Taylor & Boody 1985.

Unterbass 16', Pedal; First Wayne Street Methodist Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA; Beckerath 1974. This is the only known example of this name.

Pileata Maxima 32', Pedal; Zisterzienserstift Heiligenkreuz, Austria; Kober 1756, 1813. This is the only known example of this name.

Sound Clips

See the Sound Files appendix for general information.

Bibliography