(Fr.: ‘full registration’; pl. pleins jeux).
The most common generic French term for a Mixture stop or the Diapason chorus. Possibly derived from plain jeu, ‘integrated registration’, the phrase seems to have arisen in the 16th century to designate the combination of stops yeilding the tonal result of the heretofore undivided, stopless Blockwerk. At Notre Dame, Alençon (1537–40), the term principal du corps was still used, corresponding to the Dutch, German and probably English term ‘principal’, i.e. not a single rank by the Diapason chorus as a whole. At Chartres in 1542, the contract refers to a more extensive plain jeu, complete with the eight 32' pedal pipes and the doubled and tripled 8' and 4' ranks. For Mersenne (Harmonie universelle, 1636–7), plain jeu included a Tierce but not the highest Cymbale mixture. Bédos de Celles (L'art du facteur d'orgues, 1766–78) codified a concept which had been perfected decades earlier: the grand plein jeu was based on the Grand Orgue mixture chorus to which was invariably coupled the higher-pitched petit plein jeu of the Positif; the latter could be played alone in brisk movement or in alternation with the grand plein jeu. (To facilitate tuning, larger pleins jeux were usually divided into Fourniture and Cymbale registers with elegantly interlocking breaking schemes.) Thus the plein jeu formed one of the systematic registration recipes of the Classical French organ, in contrast, for instance, to the Grand jeu or the jeu de tierce. Evoking divine majesty in its stately radiance, it was commonly featured in the opening versets of mass movements (Kyrie, ‘Et in terra pax’, Sanctus), and it became particularly associated with a sustained four- or five-voice texture with constant and slowly resolving suspensions. It was rarely used, however, for fugal textures, these rather played on the grand jeu.
In the 19th century the Chorus structures of the French Classical organ were progressively broken down as horizontal writing gave way to more operatic, orchestral or pianistic gesture. Consequently, the plein jeu, while retaining secondary and residual use in alternatim practice, was conceived primarily as a tonally reinforcing element of the Grand choeur or Full organ, being included with the reeds rather than with the foundation stops on the divided windchests. The French builders often adopted the concept of the German Progressivharmonika (plein jeu harmonique) which, by suppressing the high-pitched ranks in the bass and progressively adding ranks in the upper range, favoured homophonic texture and helped strengthen the naturally weaker trebles. In 1913 Alexandre Cellier (in L'orgue moderne) could still write that ‘nowadays the pleins jeux are scarcely ever used except in combination with the combined choruses of reeds and foundation stops’.
After World War I French builders gradually returned to earlier concepts of the Diapason chorus and its functions, subsequently integrating certain German Baroque designs such as the Terzzimbel in order to favour the corresponding repertory. (To be sure, there has never been the same amount of experimentation with mixture compositions in France as there was in the Orgelbewegung period in Germany.) To describe the new sounds, words such as ‘luminous’ and ‘scintillating’ appeared. Composers have made clever use of the colouristic possibilities thus offered. Ultimately, however, the most far-reaching conceptual change resulted from expecting the plein jeu convincingly to render both the massive Classical French texture and the vigorous, transparent fugal writing epitomized by Bach. The validity of this nearly unattainable goal has been questioned and plein jeu design at the end of the 20th century tended increasingly to fall back on specific historical models, chosen case by case.
See also Organ, §V, 7, and Registration, §I, 5.
J. Fellot: L'orgue classique français (Paris, 1962, 2/1993)
G. Lhôte: ‘Remarques sur l'orgue français’, ISO Information, no.1 (1969), 66–7
P. Hardouin: ‘Les pleins-jeux classiques français’, L'orgue français classique: Souvigny 1983, 83–136
C.-W. Lindow: Jeux de mutation: pleins-jeux, L'orgue: cahiers et mémoires, no.31 (Paris, 1984)
J. Saint-Arroman: L'interprétation de la musique française, 1661–1789, ii (Paris, 1988), 412–25
PETER WILLIAMS, KURT LUEDERS