List of pipe organ stops

For audio examples, please see the article on organ stops.

An organ stop can mean one of three things:

• the control on an organ console that selects a particular sound
• the row of organ pipes, used to create a particular sound, more appropriately known as a rank
• the sound itself

This is a sortable list of names that may be found associated with electronic and pipe organ stops. Countless stops have been designed over the centuries, and individual organs may have stops, or names of stops, used nowhere else. This non-comprehensive list deals mainly with names of stops found on numerous Baroque, classical and romantic organs.

Stop name	Alternate name	Type	Notes
Aeoline	Aéoline Éolienne	String	an extremely small scaled stop with a very delicate, airy tone; built frequently as a single-rank stop, or as a double-rank Aéoline céleste
Blockflöte		Flute	German for "recorder"; a wide scaled conical or stopped flute of 4′ or 2′ pitch, taking its name from the common flute called a "recorder" which its tone closely resembles
Bombarde		Reed	a powerful reed-stop with cutting brassy timbre, occurring on the manuals at 16′ (and occasionally 8′), or in the pedal at 16′ or 32′ pitch
Bourdon		Flute	a wide-scaled stopped-flute, 16′ or 8′ on the manuals, and at 16′ (Soubasse) or 32′ (Contrabourdon)
Celeste	Voix céleste	String, 2 ranks	an 8′ string stop composed of two pipes for each note, one being tuned slightly sharp to create an undulating effect
Cello	Violoncelle	String	a string stop at 8′ or 16′; It has a broader, warmer, more "romantic" tone than the Gamba
Choralbass		Principal	a 4′ strongly voiced octave Diapason in the pedal division, mainly for cantus firmus -use
Clarabel Flute	Claribel Flute	Flute	a 4′ variant of the Claribel
Claribel	Melodia Portunal	Flute	an 8′ open wood stop with a clear tone, more penetrating than the Diapason
Clarinet	Clarionet	Reed	a reed stop with a richer tone imitating the orchestral instrument, perhaps the single most successful imitative stop in organ
Clairon		Reed	a 4′ octave of the French style Trompette
Clarion		Reed	a 4′ brilliant sounding octave of the Trumpet
Cornet		Flute	pronounced kor-NAY; a multi-rank stop consisting of up to five ranks of wide-scaled pipes. The pitches include 8′, 4′, ​2 2⁄3′, 2′ and ​1 3⁄5′. Three- and four-rank cornets eliminate 8′ and 4′ ranks. This stop is not imitative of the brass instrument cornet.
Cornopean		Reed	a common reed stop used for both chorus and solo, generally in a swell division; The tone is similar to the trumpet.
Cromorne	Krummhorn	Reed	distinctive reed stop, originating from the cromorne typically of low to moderate volume or power and often having a distinctly buzzing or bleating sound with a hollow color; "Cremona", a common variant of the stop's name, has nothing to do with the town of Cremona in Italy nor the famous school of violin makers who lived there.
Diapason		Principal	a flue stop which is the "backbone" sound of the organ; Most commonly at 8′ on a manual, and 8′ or 16′ on the pedals. Modern organ builders use the term Principal.
Diaphone			a special type of organ pipe, producing tone by using a felt hammer to beat air through the resonator; Common on theater organs, it is not often seen on church and concert instruments.
Doublette		Principal	2' Super-Octave most commonly found in French organs
Fagotto	Bassoon Fagott	Reed	one of the earliest pedal reeds at 16′ It can also be found at the same pitch on the manuals of larger organs, as part of the manual reed chorus.
Flageolet		Flute	A romantic style flute in 2' or 1' pitch.
Fugara		String	A flue stop in 4' or 8' pitch. The tone has a sharp "stringy" quality.
Gamba	Viol da Gamba Viole	String	one of the earliest designs of string stops; named after the Baroque instrument viola da gamba; It has a thinner, more cutting tone than the Cello stop.
Gedackt	Gedeckt	Flute	a basic stopped 8′ flute in the manuals, and stopped 16′ and/or 8′ flute voice in the pedal
Gemshorn	Cor de Chamois	String	German for "chamois horn"; a narrow-scale, tapered String with a tone sounding and treated like a Principal
Harmonic Flute		Flute	an open metal flute made to sound an octave above its length by means of a small hole at its midpoint; This stop speaks a very pure flute tone and was popularized by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.
Hohlflöte	Holpijp	Flute	a metal of wooden 8' stop to emulate a "hollow-sounding flute"
Larigot		Flute	a single-rank mutation stop of ​1 1⁄3′ pitch
Mixture		Flute or Principal	any multi-rank stop; Mixtures enhance the harmonics of the fundamental pitch, and are intended for use with foundation stops, not alone. Mixture IV, for example, indicates four ranks.
Nachthorn	Night Horn Cor de Nuit	Flute	extremely wide-scaled flute with a relatively small mouth, produces a soft, but penetrating sound; occurring at 8′ and 4′ pitch, and also at 2′ pitch at pedal
Nasard	Nasat Nazard Twelfth	Flute	a single-rank mutation stop of ​2 2⁄3′ pitch in the manuals and ​5 1⁄3′ in the pedals; It is the lowest non-unison stop that reinforces the 8′ fundamental harmonic and 16′ pedal
Oboe	Hautbois	Reed	a single-rank reed stop used as both a solo stop and a chorus reed, widely used in French romantic organ music
Octave/Principal	Oktav Prestant	Principal	a 4′ Principal on the manuals
Ophicleide		Reed	an extremely powerful reed stop, much like the Bombarde; pitched as a 16′ or 32′ in the pedal division or found as an 8′ or 16′ on the manuals
Orchestral Oboe		Reed	a different stop than Oboe; designed specifically to imitate the orchestral instrument; usually it iis of a smaller scale than non-imitative oboe
Piccolo		Flute	a flute or occasionally a diapason at 1′
Posaune		Reed	German for "trombone"; voiced to blend with an ensemble
Principal/Open Diapason	Montre Principale Prinzipal Tenori	Principal	a prominent Diapason, commonly found at 8′ as well as 16', 4', and 2' pitches; It is the "basic voice" of the organ.
Quarte		Flute	a flute at 2′; short for Quarte de nasard, sounding an interval of a fourth above the nasard stop
Rankette		Reed	a reed stop with ​1⁄32 length resonators producing a buzzy sound with low fundamental.
Rohrflöte	Chimney Flute	Flute	German for "reed flute"; a semi-capped metal pipe with a narrow, open-ended tube (i.e. "chimney") extending from the top which resembles a reed
Salicional		String	an 8′ string stop with milder tone than Gamba; It is the most common stop used for the Voix céleste in combination with a second rank of salicionals tuned slightly sharp.
Sifflöte	Piccolo Sifflet	Flute	a 1′ flute
Super Octave/Fifteenth		Principal	the manual 2′ Principal or Diapason; Its name merely signifies that it is above (i.e. "super") the 4′ Octave.
Tibia Clausa	Tibia	Flute	a large-scale, stopped wood flute pipe, usually with a leathered lip, and is arguably the most important rank of pipes in a theatre pipe organ, with some organs having as many as 5.
Tierce	Seventeenth Terz Tertia	Flute	a single-rank mutation stop pitched ​1 3⁄5′, supporting the 8′ harmonic series
Trombone	Posaune Buccina	Reed	a powerful reed stop, simulating the trombone; most commonly in the pedal at 16′ or 32′ pitch and under a high wind pressure
Trompette en Chamade	Fan Trumpet Horizontal Trumpet Trompette à Chamade	Reed	a powerful reed of the trumpet-family, usually 8′ in the manuals and 16′, voiced as a brilliant solo stop, capable of being heard over full organ
Trompette Militaire		Reed	a powerful reed of the trumpet-family, with a brassy, penetrating tone
Trumpet	Trompete Trompette	Reed	a loud reed stop, generally a single rank, with vertical full-length resonators flared to form a bell; In traditional organ building, the Trumpet is a firmer, more solid-pitched stop than the French Trompette, which emphasizes overtones at the expense of fundamental tone.
Tuba		Reed	a powerful large-scale reed of the trumpet-family usually 8′ in the manuals and 16′ (sometimes 32′) in the pedals; The tuba-voice is named after the ancient Roman trumpets though not imitating their sound. Generally on high wind-pressure and usually the loudest voice (decibel level) in the organ, whereas the various 32′ stops are the most powerful voices (sound wave pressure).
Twenty-Second	Kleine Principal	Principal	a 1′ diapason
Unda Maris		Flute	Latin for "wave of the sea"; a very soft rank tuned slightly sharp or flat. It is drawn with another soft rank to create a very slow undulation similar to, but less prominent than, a Voix céleste. Occasionally built as a double-rank stop called Unda Maris II, one rank at standard pitch and the other tuned sharp.
Vox Humana	Voix Humaine	Reed	a type of reed stop designed to impressionistically imitate the human voice

External links

• Encyclopedia of Organ Stops, a fairly exhaustive reference that describes over two thousand stop names.
• Pipe organ tonal design, a French organ builder's site in sometimes puzzling English.
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