This stop can be described only by its purported purpose: to bind or "couple" together the tones of other stops. To serve that purpose, a wide variety of constructions and tones have been used. The earliest examples, according to Grove and Williams, were open flue stops: Principals, Gemshorns or Spillflöten. In Habsburg Europe (16th, 17th & 18th centuries, esp. Austria and Germany) it was a stopped flute, essentially a Gedeckt, at 16', 8' and 4' pitches. At various times and places this stop has also been a mutation or a Mixture of two or three ranks.

The function of the Coppel is often provided by stops of other names. Irwin lists the following examples:

Bass Flute Bourdon Cone Flute Erzahler

Gemshorn Major Open Flute Nachthorn Orchestral Flute

Quint Flute Quintaten Stentorphone Tibia Plena

See also Coppeldone, Coppendoff.

Variants

Examples

Osiris contains nineteen examples of Copula at 8' pitch and six at 4', seven examples of Copel at 8' and one each at 4' and 16', seven examples of Coppel at 8' and two at 4', and three examples of Copl at 8'. The oldest ones are listed below. No examples of Coupler, Coppeldoef, Coppelfluit, Koppel, Thunbass or Coupling-Flute are known.

Copel 8', Manual I; Copel 8', Manual II; Parish Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (Maria Himmelfarht), Valtice, Czech Republic; Hencke 1750.

Copel 8', Positiv; Copel 16', Hauptwerk; Abbey, Ottobeuren, Germany; Riepp 1766.

Copula 8', Rückpositiv; St. Michael, Vienna, Austria; Sieber 1714.

Copula 8', 4, Manual II; St. Clement Church (sv. Kliment), Prague, Czech Republic; Streit 1719.

Copula 8', 4', Manual II; Our Lady Church (kostel P. Marie), Milicin, Czech Republic; Semrad 1755.

Coppel 4', Manual; Valère Cathedral, Sion, Valais, Switzerland; unknown 1390.

Coppel 8', Oberwerk; Basilica, Weingarten, Württemburg, Germany; Gabler 1737-50.

Coppel 8', Manual I; Ochsenhausen, Baden-Württemburg, Germany; Gabler 1755.

Copl 8', Hauptwerk; Monastery Church, Zwettl, Austria; Egedacher 1731.

Copl 8', Positiv; Monastery Church, Zwettl, Austria; Egedacher 1731.

Copl 8', Hauptwerk; Stiftbasilika Klosterneuburg, Austria, Vienna; Freundt 1641.

Bibliography