Viole Sourdine French

A string stop of 8' pitch, voiced to more or less imitate the sound of the muted orchestral violin. It was invented by William Thynne as an echo version of his Viole d'Orchestre and first introduced in the organ at Tewkesbury Abbey, England. It was of moderately small scale slotted cylindrical open metal pipes, 1 3/4" dia. at tenor (4') C, with a 1/5 mouth and harmonic bridges. J. W. Whiteley developed a variant of this stop using tapered pipes and named it Muted Viol, which many sources consider to be synonymous with Viole Sourdine. Audsley describes its tone as delicately voiced and extremely refined.

Skinner produced a different form of Viole Sourdine.

Examples

Osiris contains five examples of Viole Sourdine, only one of which is known to be of the Thynne type.

Viole Sourdine 8', Choir; Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire, England; Michell & Thynne 1885.

Bibliography