Audsley lists Flauto Minore with the following description:

The name appropriately employed to designate an unimitative flute-toned stop of secondary importance as regards strength of tone, placed in any division of the Organ in which a more powerful flute-tuned stop, labeled Flauto Maggiore, is inserted. The German equivalent - Minorflöte - has been adopted to designate a flute-toned stop of 4 ft. pitch, as in the Organ in the choir of the Cathedral of Breslau. In this latter sense the term in undesirable; for the terms Flauto Maggiore and Flauto Minore should refer to tone, - the only matter of importance to the organist, - not to the sizes of the stops only, which call for other distinguishing names.

Wedgwood describes Flauto Minor thus: “Correctly speaking an octave Flauto Major; but occasionally, and perhaps more sensibly, applied to a stop similar to the Flauto Major, but less powerful.”

Examples

All known examples are listed below. No examples of Minorflöte are known. Contributions welcome.

Flauto Minor 4', Schwellwerk; Concert Hall, Kyoto, Japan, Klais 1995?. (The 8' flute in this division is a Flauto Amabile, and there is no “Major” anything in the instrument.)

Flauto Minore 4', II Manual; Johanniskirche, Wernigerode, Germany; Ladegast 1885. (Again, the 8' flute in this division is a Flauto Amabile, and there is no “Major” anything in the instrument.)

Bibliography