Regal

There is no historical keyboard instrument, which is even nowadays as underestimated as the regal. Especially during the 16th and 17th century it was omnipresent as a portable instrument fitted with one reed-stop.

Good regal sound overlaps to a surprising degree with voices and strings such as with mid European instruments of the 17th century in general. One could understand it -in accordance with Michael Praetorius´ comments in Syntagma musicum- as sustained harpsichord sound.

After many years of experiments and methodical studies I do feel capable of making regals, that have outstanding reliability of tuning combined with vivid and rich sound. Slowly growing but ongoing interest in regals do confirm my endeavour to revive their importance for corresponding music.

French regal

In the 18th 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 …

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Pedal regal

Courage, imagination and trust of one of my clients enabled me to built a regal, that to my knowledge has never been made like this. …

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Bible regal

Bible-regals are very small regals, whose front block, i.e . keyboards, pipes and wind-chest can be hidden underneath …

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Positives with regal-sound

It is of course very charming to embed a regal voice into the stop-list of a positive organ. But …

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