On an overcast and misty morning I cycle through the water gate into the historic center of the lovely town of Zaltbommel. It is sunday and there is hardly anybody in the street and everything is quiet. But then I turn around a corner and hear the sound of a barrel organ. I follow the sound down the street and meet Peter, who is playing an organ in front of his house.
A barrel organ is operated by turning a crank so that bellows blow air through ranks of pipes. The pipes are housed in a wooden case. The organs are frequently highly decorated. The pieces of music can be encoded onto wooden cylinders or carton or paper rolls or books. The holes in the roll stand for the pipes to be blown with air which is created in the bellows and transferred to the pipes by individual tubes. The crank at the same time operates the bellows and forwards the paper roll or turns the cylinder. The art of the so called organ grinder is to turn the crank as evenly as possible at the right speed. There are varieties of organs, from small enough to be hand held, medium size to be transported on a trolley and the big organs which frequently come with Dutch markets.
Peter Schouten is an actor and director. In his latest performance he portrays an organ player and story teller. Built by the Perlee company in Amsterdam his organ is more than a hundred years old. Here in the street it looks simple, but Peter has left the ornaments inside the house while he is trying out different tunes in the street.
Peter sent this photo to show how he and his organ look during the show
He prepares different performances in theaters, but also for private and childrens' birthday parties or shows in retirement homes or schools. For the performances he appears in a period costume.
There are not only three barrel organ players in Zaltbommel, but there is also Thomas Sterk, who makes the music rolls and books for these organs.
Several musea display the variety of barrel organs in the Netherlands, for example in Helmond, Utrecht and in Haarlem.
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