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Sublime Harmonie
By Jim Heyworth

Robbie asks, "What is Sublime Harmonie?"  Pardon my misspelling,
"Sublime Harmony."  Blame it on my cerebral software drivers
incorrectly programmed to my flying fingers on the keyboard.

The quick answer for the organ folk is that it is similar to a "Voix
Celeste" organ stop which plays a rank of pipes deliberately set to be
very slightly out of tune with the rest of the organ.  When this stop is
drawn one of the in-tune ranks is forced to play at the same time.  This
causes a "Heavenly Voices" (in some people's opinion) audible beat akin
to a vibrato.

To be more precise, I don't think I could say it any better that A.W.J.G
Ord-Hume in his book "Collecting Musical Boxes and How To Repair Them:"

  "... The 'Sublime Harmonie' featured two combs of the same length,
  playing as one comb.  This necessitated the cylinder being set so
  that it had, in effect, two bass ends and two trebles.  A very pleasing
  sound was thus created by the careful voicing and sympathetic
  resonance between the two sets of teeth.  Some long combs were
  produced in two halves purely as a matter of convenience, and should
  not be confused with the genuine two-comb 'Sublime Harmonie'."

I should point out, at this juncture, that the Polyphon referred to
in yesterday's question plays the upper and lower combs, each having
a similar but not identical scale, separately and not necessarily
together.  The possibility is there, nevertheless, to have the
Sublime Harmonie effect if the two are tuned slightly differently and
chosen by the disc to play the same note simultaneously on both
combs.  Hence my question.

Jim Heyworth,ΒΆ
Sechelt, B.C., Canada

 [ Got it!  Thanks for the explanation, Jim.  -- Robbie

(Message sent Mon, 17 Feb 1997 10:25:41 -0800 , from time zone -0800.)

Key Words in Subject:  Harmonie, Sublime