Rein Schenk
After an 8-year period of silence we can again listen to the music of one of the oldest street organs of the Netherlands, De Brandweer. We take the opportunity of its recent profound restoration to tell something about its history and to show that this organ too did not escape from changes. After "de grote Buik" (the Fat Belly, HP 1996 / 135-140) the Brandweer is the second Limonaire organ in this series. It is one of the many street organs that were imported in the Netherlands during the first decade of this century. Only a few of them are left and most of these have been rebuilt to so-called Bourdon-organs. In the Netherlands we still have the Spaanse Dame or Omke Romke (Spanish Lady), the Engelenkast (Angels Chest), Mr. Wipprechts Limonaire and the Flamingo.
De Brandweer was one of the two 56-key Limonaire organs that were purchased in 1911 by the Perlee-Warnies firm for renting purposes. The other organ was De Bels (after a kind of doves, view HP 1998 / 12-13). like that organ de Brandweer possessed the typical Limonaire-registers Voix Humaine, Clarinette, Violine, and Xylophone. It did not have a piccolo register like de Bels, but it had a Grillophone -called "cats bells" locally- a register of sleigh bells on leather straps that were shaken up and down. The only other organ known to have such a register was de Engelenkast. There was not much to the sound of the Grillophone and it was removed from the organ in a rather early period (after 1925).
On photo 1, taken in IJmuiden abt. 1925 we see de Brandweer in its maiden shape with a proscenium that was painted brown all over. In the front of the organ the Xylophone can be clearly seen and the Voix Humaine immediately behind it. Strikingly visible are the command pipes for the Xylophone and Grillophone that was built in two halves in the side cabinets. There may have been a separate ornament to hide these pipes from the view, like on de Bels. Three figures are on the proscenium; the bandmaster's helmet was responsible for the name of the organ.
In 1912 some gramophone recordings were made of the organ, on the label Favorite. Many French chansons of that time were under the recorded titles, under which the well-known "Sous les ponts de Paris (under Paris' bridges, view the record label on p.160)
Like so many organs de Brandweer was rebuilt in the late twenties to a "bourdonorgel"; not by Carl Frei, but under Perlee's own management. The Voix Humaine, Clarinette and Xylophone registers were removed and replaced by one new register: Bourdon (celeste). This register was manufactured by Karel Struijs, Gijs Perlee sr.'s stepson. One row of stopped pipes in the accompaniment section was replaced by a row of open flutes and one of the two rows of the violin register was replaced as well. Presumably on this occasion de Brandweer was provided with a new proscenium, parts of which were made by Gijs van Nieuwkerk, and the wings were taken from a Bursens organ. The results can be seen on photo 2, taken in Amsterdam in the early thirties. The reason of this thorough metamorphosis of de Brandweer may remain unclear forever, all the more because nearly the whole proscenium, except the belly, was fitted before de Bels. Is is probably still there, at least as far as we know, bacause nothing was heard here about this Limonaire organ after it left our country about 15 years ago. The fate of the original proscenium of de Bels is not known, exept for the beautifully carved head that is still with the Perlee family in the Westerstraat in Amsterdam.
Later, the high sides of the head of this second proscenium were replaced by two smaller ones, and the front was repainted. On this occasion the two ladies that were in the panels of the wings (almost identical to the paintings on the original proscenium) were replaced by Middle-East figures. Small changes were made in the carving work. On photo 3 the result can be seen, as well as the metamorphosis of de Bels. The picture was taken in the early thirties in front of Mr. Perlee's workshop. The new Eastern figures have been on the organ ever since, including the latest restoration. Furthermore it can be observed that the carving in the wings has been changed and the columns were lengthened. Presumably the Bursens wings were too small for de Brandweer.
Untill the start of WW II de Brandweer has been rented permanently, both in and outside Amsterdam, lastly to Hofman in Haarlem. After the liberation the organ played in Amersfoort for some time, before it started its long career as a rent-organ for the legendary Piet van der Erf. This organ-man from The Hague has undoubtedly been the most devoted hirer of de Brandweer: he rented the organ from Perlee for over 37 years, from 1946 to his death in 1983, with some short intermissions for the necessary revisions. On January 16th the organ was collected in Amsterdam by Piet and his crew and they took the organ to The Hague by foot, in two days.
Photo 4 dates from the beginning of the exploitation in The Hague. At the beam Piet van der Erf is standing. During the revisions sometimes small changes were made to the organ: in 1948 some carvings were added to the belly and on occasion of a repainting extra winglets were added to de Brandweer. The results are on photo 5. Louis Guykens, the present owner of de Brandweer, tells something about the way Piet van der Erf worked with the organ on page 162-163.
In 1957 Piet van der Erf got permission to play in Voorburg (a satellite town). This permission is now in the hands of Louis Guykens who has been continueing the organ working on Saturdays after Piet's death till the present day. The traditional wooden organ cart was replaced by a small trailer (photo 6). Inbetween, in 1965 both rows of Violin pipes were replaced by Mortier-made specimens, so by now only the pipes of the basses and part of the Accompaniment in original Limonaire.
In 1991 it turned out that de Brandweer, bought by Guykens in 1987, was in such a bad condition that a complete revision was inevitable. The organ was brought to Amsterdam, where Leon van Leeuwen would do the job. Another organ, de Snuffel, took its place for almost 8 years. Some years ago it was decided to put the organ on a three-wheel cart again to work in the traditional way (view HP 1997/1 and 1997/3).
During the restoration every part of de Brandweer has been inspected and renewed where necessaty. Of course this applies to all leather and moving parts, but the chest and pipes needed to be looked upon thoroughly and the proscenium received a face-lift, so the organ is looking and playing perfectly. The beautiful results can be seen on the colour picture on p.160. The work on the proscenium was done by Robert Blinkhof, who had to remove 14 (!) layers of paint first. The paintings of the Eastern figures were in such a bad condition that they had to be repainted on new linen. In the same style a new picture in Eastern style was painted on linen. Two newly-made statues by Marc Fournier (Lyon,France) and painted by Pieter van Aken are on the proscemium now.
We end this volume with two pictures of the inside of the bellows. Photo 7 shows a view inside the "magazijn" where the building number (4498) and the number of keys (56) are written. On photo 8 we can seen the inside of the bellows, lined with repertiore lists of Limonaire.
The results of the restoration could be seen and heard first on the Arnhem organ festival of June 6th this year. On the 10th the organ made its re-entry in Voorburg, where it was welcomed with much enthusiasm.