Organ History - Regal

Regal organ

Regal is a type of organ that works with stop reeds.
A reed strikes against a surface while the air is blown against it, the number of vibrations produced creates a frequency, this frequency is recognized as a tone.
The technology is built into a wind capsule, the boot.

The frequency (number of vibrations) can be regulated with a wire that shortens or lengthens the vibrating reed surface from outside the boot.

Regal organs were popular between the 16th and 18th centuries AD.

This technique made it possible to build small organs with a wide sound spectrum.

What was not so popular was the background noise caused by the striking of the reeds, also known as buzzing.

In large fixed organs there is usually a Regal stop above the keyboard in the middle of the organ.

The attached resonators are only used to change the sound and not to change the tone as is usual with the labial pipes.

The Regal stop is detuned in the opposite direction to a Labial pipe stop, which leads to a lot of work when tuning a large organ with a Regal stop.