Trechterregal German Trichterregal German

An 8' Regal stop with funnel-shaped resonators, hence the name (trichter = “funnel”). Grove and Williams consider this an important type of regal, but neither explains why. Adlung perhaps provides a clue:

This is a special variety [of Regal] in which the pipes look like funnels (Trichter). I have found this reed only at 8', e.g., at St. Ansgarii in Bremen, about which it is reported that this [Trichterregal] is a newly invented variety, almost like a Vox humana. There are 4 of this new type in the organ in Bremen, and these must be distinguished from the ordinary (alten) Trichterregals, such as are discussed in the [Neu-eröffnete] Orchestre 1, p. 299; this is what Mattheson says in the Appendix to Niedt's Second Part[, p. 160]. Otherwise there is nothing better about the ordinary Trichterregal than other Regals. The new type is also [found] at St. Stephani and the Marienkirche in Bremen. Moreover, it is found (though, I believe, mostly of the old variety) at Elmshorn at 8', in the large organ at St. Nikolai, at St. Jakobi, St. Petri, and in the organ at the Cathedral in Hamburg, at St. Marie [sic] Magdelena there (in which the pipes are very short and very wide at the top), at St. Marien in Lübeck, St. Michaelis in Lüneburg, Otterndorf in Land Hadeln, and at St. Cosmae in Stade, etc. All are at 8' pitch.

Elsewhere Adlung states that the Trichterregal is made of sheet iron. Grove credits Friedrich Stellwagen with the introduction of this stop. Williams calls it “a Bw, Ow or Rp [Brustwerk, Oberwerk or Ruckpositiv] equivalent of the Schalmei or Trompete”. Wedgwood reports that the resonators sometimes consisted of three or four conical sections, alternately inverted above each other. The name Trechterregal does not appear in the literature, but it is clearly an alternate spelling of the same stop.

Examples

Osiris contains about three dozen examples, most at 8' pitch, a few at 4' pitch, and one at 16' pitch. The examples given below include the oldest ones known.

Trichterregal 8', Rueckpositiv; Marienkirche, Stralsund, Germany; Stellwagen 1659 (restored mid-1900's).

Trichter-Regal 8', Rück-Positiv; Nicolaikirche, Hamburg, Germany; Schnitger 1682 (destroyed).

Trechter-Regal 8', Brustpositiv; St. Jakobi, Hamburg, Germany; Schnitger 1693 (restored 1993).

Trechter Regal 8', Ruckpositiv; St. Cosmae, Stadt, Germany; Schnitger 1668-75 (restored 1975).

Trichterregal 16', Rückpositiv; Cathedral, Porto, Portugal; Jann 1985.

Trichter Regal 4', Positiv; Calvary Church, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Moller 1990.

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Bibliography