French Regal

In the 18^th century the regal enjoyed a late bloom due to the ingenious inventor and organ-builder Jean-Baptist Micot (1712-1784). Looking for a suitable prototype for the revival of the regal, his layout appeared to me appropriate both in terms of playing and sound. Whereas he picked up features of good Renaissance instruments, his regals had enlarged compass towards both ends and compact bellows with feeder-system.

The shown oak-instrument is fitted with transposer and tunable short octaves and was made for the Hochschule für Musik of Würzburg at the instigation of Prof. Christoph Bossert. The walnut-instrument is my firstborn and sits in my living-room. The depicted two-manual regal also is based on Micot, but uses an even larger compas from C to c4, which convertes the two stops into a true Regal 16foot and Gedackt 8foot. It was commissoned by the Landesbühnen Sachsen.

A small video illustrates its sound and the use of the manual coupler.

During a cultural pilgrimage to Paris I have been able to have a closer look at one of Micot´s one-manual regals. Maybe, one fine day I shall be able to copy it.