Théorie-pratique de la facture de l'orgue (1789) by François-Henri Clicquot; Jean MartinodReview by: Almonte C. Howell, Jr.Notes, Second Series, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Sep., 1970), p. 57Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/896768 .

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Th6orie-pratique de la facture de l'orgue (1789). By Fran?ois-Henri Clic- quot. Facsim. ed. by Jean Martinod. Kassel: Bairenreiter, 1968. [86 p.; DM 42.-]

Fransois-Henri Clicquot (1732-90) was the last and most eminent representative of a dynasty of organ builders that in- cluded his grandfather Robert (ca.1645- ca.1720) and his father Louis-Alexandre (ca.1682-1760). All worked and lived in Paris, and all bore the title of Facteur d'orgues du Roy. Fransois-Henri became the most honored organ builder of his day and the one representative of the ancien regime whose work continued in high repute during the nineteenth cen- tury. He was not an innovator, and his production marks rather the closing period of the classic French organ, which had already reached its full flowering in the late seventeenth century. Clicquot is es- pecially noted for having increased the number and power of the reeds, a trend which is generally viewed as a decline from the classic purity of the earlier in- struments. The organ of the Cathedral of Poitiers was one of his crowning achieve- ments and is fortunately preserved today in its original state-doubly fortunate since the Th.torie-pratique is a partial record of this organ.

The manuscript, presently in the Muni- cipal Library of Poitiers, is apparently only a fragment left unfinished at the master's death. It consists of eighty-six sketches-mostly of reed ranks and mostly based on the Poitiers organ-accompanied only by brief labels and a few cryptic notes, not all in the same hand. One can only speculate whether Clicquot intended to expand it to a complete exposition of all types of stops and to accompany it with a full expository text, as another late-eighteenth-century rival to the cele- brated work of Dom Bedos de Celles.

The ranks depicted by Clicquot are all reeds, his specialty, with the single excep- tion of a cornet mixture. Included are several bombards, trompettes, and clairons, and single examples of the cromorne, hautbois (a stop with whose development he is credited), basson, and voix humaine. The depictions are of various types: some show the entire rank as it is placed in the organ, others show close-ups of individual

pipes and their constructions, and still others show, in actual size, various parts such as the blocks (noyaux) or the shallots (anches).

Many tables are devoted to the diapa- sons of each rank (the term applies to the "scales" of the pipes or resonators, that is, their lengths and circumferences), and these contain carefully-scaled two- dimensional drawings of each of the pro- portions, superimposed upon one another and labeled with the exact measurements. What we are apparently shown are the flat panels of pipe metal as they would be cut before being rolled into pipe shapes. The painstaking scale-drawing through- out the volume makes it seem theoretically possible to reconstruct each of the ranks represented. Unfortunately the two-thirds reduction in size of the present facsimile would hamper such an effort in two respects: it reduces the utility of the sketches drawn to actual size, and it often makes the tiny figures of measurement on the scaled drawings too unclear to be decipherable even with a magnifying glass.

Aside from those elements rendered illegible by the reproduction, there re- main, for this reviewer at least, many other mysteries and unanswered questions. No help is provided by M. Martinod's brief postface, which contents itself with a little background material and a list of the instruments constructed or restored by Clicquot. The number of readers who can use the work with full understanding must surely be very restricted; it could perhaps be increased by the publication of a companion volume of explication and commentary.

ALMONTE C. HOWELL, JR. University of Georgia

The Modern Harpsichord: 20th Cen- tury Instruments and Their Makers. By Wolfgang Joachim Zuckermann. [New York]: October House [c1969]. [255 p.; $15.00]

This book reviews modern harpsichords and includes as many builders as the author could contact or even learn about second-hand. It endeavors to show what historical principles have been retained

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