Flauto Harmonicissimo Italian

Hundpfeife German

Seventy-First English



A stopped flute of 1/32' pitch. Commencing in the so-called bass at a frequency of approximately 16khz, most of the stop is beyond the range of human hearing, an attribute considered to be an advantage by the stop's inventor, as tuning was a non-issue. Due to the small size of the pipes, the stop breaks back an octave at middle C, and every octave thereafter (not that anyone could notice). Overblown to speak the 5th harmonic, two octaves and a third above the fundamental, the pipes are 5 times as long as a normal stopped pipe sounding the same note. The lowest pipe had a physical speaking length of 1 7/8".

During the installation of the organ in which this stop was first inserted, it was discovered that the stop could be used to rid the church of bats. Unfortunately, the organ was destroyed by a large pack of enraged dogs during the inaugural recital.

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