Hölzernes Gelächter German Hültze Glechter German

Williams describes an organ scheme devised by Arnold Schlick around 1500 that contained the following stop:

hültze glechter (hölzernes Gelächter), an unusual stop ‘whose sound resembles that of small boys hitting a pot with a spoon’. Perhaps a (wooden) Glockenspiel which could be made of many materials, including glass; but possibly a flute Mixture or single-rank-high wide Flageolet such as made the ‘anvil’ effect at Görlitz in about 1700 when drawn with the Quintadena 16'.

Maclean further speculates that it may have been a tremulant (“with a noisy clatter?”) or a joke stop like the Fuchsschwanz, and translates the name as “wooden clappers”. A modern German dictionary, however, translates gelachter as “laughter”, not “clappers”.

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