Echo Gamba English

A softer and smaller scaled Gamba of 8' pitch. Wedgwood describes its tone as hard and cold, Audsley calls it “somewhat cold”, and Irwin speaks of its “subdued keenness”. According to Audsley, it is usually made of metal, with an inappropriate bass octave of stopped wood. Skinner says:

The Echo Gamba may be of scale 60, or smaller, having a 1/6 mouth, cut up 1/4 and voiced very softly, as it must be with the low cut-up. It requires the e of the beard and is tuned with sleeves; more stringy than the Dulciana but about equal in power. It is the softest of all flue voices and very responsive to the expression box.

Other stops which claim to be the softest are Dolcissimo, Echo Dulciana Celeste, Fernflöte, Viola d'Amore, Vox Angelica, and Vox Mystica.

Examples

Osiris contains about two dozen examples. The earliest ones are:

Echo Gamba 8', Swell; Hatchlands Park, Surrey, England; Walker 1904.

Echo Gamba 8', Swell; St Paul's Trinity Pacific, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand; Hill 1905.

Bibliography