Flue-work.

The flue-stops of an organ collectively (as distinct from Reed-work), i.e. those in which sound is produced on the fipple or flue principle whereby wind is directed through a narrow windway to strike against a lip or edge above. The term refers to the open or stopped Diapasons or Principals, the Flutes, the narrow-scaled, conical, compound and all varieties of metal or wooden stops other than those of the reed-work. The term appears only late in English writings, being absent from such authors as Talbot, Hawkins, Burney, Blewitt etc., who used only the phrase ‘reed stops’ to distinguish the non-flues. Hopkins and Rimbault (The Organ, 1855) gave alternatives: ‘lip, mouth or flue pipes – for they are called by all these names’, although he himself preferred ‘flue’. Some American authors prefer the terms ‘labial’ (flue) and ‘lingual’ (reed).

PETER WILLIAMS