Violflöte German Viol Flute English Viole Flute English?

Viol Flute is listed only by Irwin, who says:

A Flute of small scale and bright timbre, at 8' or 4' on the manuals. This is another in the great number of soft open metal or wooden hybrid tones in the organ that are made up of both the Flute and the bright String quality of tone. Under such a name any number of gradations of brightness or dull quality is possible. The String proportion in overtones appears in any flue pipe that is reduced sufficiently in scale. The relatively strong fundamental ground tone of all Flutes may be brought into a flue rank by manipulating the mouth's cut-up with the scale and wind. Hybrids beween Diapasons and Flutes, Diapasons and Strings, and even the horn-like and woodwind-like timbres are possible to an experienced voicer. This is a brighter Flute than the Viola Flute.

In his entry for Viola Flute, Irwin says “See Viole Flute”, but has no entry with that spelling. Whether Viole Flute is an alternate spelling for Viol Flute or a misspelling of it, we cannot be certain, but Viol and Viole are synonyms.

Violflöte is listed only by Maclean, who cites the Hamilton example and says: “In contemporary German organs, this name indicates a small-scaled cylindrical Gamba of quiet tone.”

Examples

Osiris contains nine examples of Violflöte. No examples of Viol Flute or Viole Flute are known. Contributions welcome.

Violflöte 8', Oberwerk; Cathedral, Passau, Bavaria, Germany; Steinmeyer 1924. This is the earliest known example.

Violflöte 8', Great; Ev. Church, St. Martin, Bruckberg, Bavaria, Germany; Steinmeyer 1935.

Violflöte; Basilica, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Steinmeyer 1938.

Violflote 8', 4', Schwellwerk; St. Paul's Cathedral, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Beckerath 1962.

Bibliography