Flûte Conique French Flûte Pyramidale French

The earliest known examples of Flûte Conique were made by Cavaillé-Coll at 16', 8' and 4' pitch. They were metal flutes of inverted conical form; that is, wider at the top than at the mouth. Audsley cites the examples at Saint-Sulpice, but incorrectly describes them as Spitzflötes, which are conical. Wedgwood describes the tone of the Flûte Conique as “very hard and powerful”. Maclean reports that some stoplists for St. Sulpice list its examples as Flûte Pyramidale; he describes them as medium-large scale conical flutes. Maclean is the only known source to mention the name Flûte Pyramidale.

Since Cavaillé-Coll's time, the name Flûte Conique seems to have become a synonym for Spitzflöte, having a conical form (narrow at the top). Irwin lists Flûte Conique as a synonym for Conical Flute.

Examples

Osiris contains two dozen examples of Flûte Conique at 8' pitch, three dozen at 4', twelve at 16', five at 2', and one at 1'. The form of the pipes are unknown, except where noted. All known examples of Flûte Pyramidale are given below.

Flute Conique 8', Grand Orgue; St. Denis, Paris, France; Cavaillé-Coll? 1857. Inverted-conical; apparently still extant.

Flûte Conique 16', Grand Orgue, Solo; St. Sulpice, Paris, France; Cavaillé-Coll 1862, 1883. Inverted conical.

Flute Conique 4', Echo Expressif; St. Etienne-du-Mont, Paris, France; Pescheur 1631-36, Somer 1766-71, Clicquot 1772, Cavaillé-Coll 1873.

Flute Conique 8', Positif; Great Hall, Tchaikovskij Conservatory, Moscow, Russia; Cavaillé-Coll 1899.

Flute Conique 16', Great; Royal Albert Hall, London, England; Willis 1872. Partly harmonic.

Flûte Pyramidale 4', Grand-Orgue; Notre-Dame du Finistère, Brussels, Belgium; Loret 1848-1856.

Flûte Pyramidale 4', Bombarde; Averbode Abbey, Belgium; Loret 1859.

Flûte Pyramidale 2', Positif; Notre-Dame-des-Pommiers, Beaucaire, France?; Beaucourt et Voegeli 1849.

Sound Clips

See the Sound Files appendix for general information.

Bibliography