Dulciana Celeste English

Listed only by Irwin, who says:

An undulating manual stop of 8' composed of two ranks of Dulciana pipes, sometimes voiced especially for the céleste function. Since this is a dull céleste, it is more useful at a slow undulation, which will impair its timbre and the timbres of other stops less. It is usually normal-sharp, but normal-flat is also head in some examples. The sharp-flat pattern does not leave a normal rank free for combination. This sedate, quiet, somewhat colorless stop makes and ideal background and accompaniment tone.

Bonavia-Hunt mentions the stop, saying:

The earliest form of céleste consists of two dulcianas, which tuned to beat at a slow pulsation rate gave a pleasing effect. This type of céleste was in vogue for many years (often labelled “vox angelica”) until the introduction of string tone of the viol type suggested the string or violes célestes.

Variants

Examples

Dulciana Celeste 8', Choir; Duke University Chapel, Durham, North Carolina, USA; Aeolian 1930.

Dulciana Celeste 8', Swell; St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, Hanover, Pennsylvania, USA; Austin 1925-1982.

Dulciana Celeste 8', Choir; Princeton University Chapel, Princeton, New Jersey, USA; Skinner 1927-8.

Bibliography