Piet Maas of Amsterdam was among the first music markers in the Netherlands. He started his work in the twenties and was employed by the Perlee firm from 1929 till 1950. Although he was working in the shadow of other great music markers - especially Carl Frei - he made an important contribution to the music played on the street and fairground organs in the Netherlands. Especially his markings of music for the smaller types of street organs with counter melody are still appreciated by many.
Piet Maas was born in Amsterdam on the 15th of October
1898. As a youth he took piano lessons and now and then he played on his
fathers accordion. A very early issue of HP (August 1955) states that his
love for street organs dated already from his early school days. After
his military service Piet Maas worked as a bar pianist for a few years,
but his interest for cranked organs remained. He started in 1928 making
arrangements for a Mignon organette that he had just bought. His first
arrangement is said to be "Opoe draagt een smoking" (originally French:
Elle a mis son smoking). After some practice the results were so satisfying
that he started marking music for bigger organs. Soon he received orders
from Henk Möhlmann. Gramophone records of his arrangements were made
from 1928. In 1929 he started working for Gijs Perlee Sr. and was engaged
by the latter. Maybe the economic crisis of that year, causing less work
for musicians, played a role in this decision.
In the thirties everyone could order music by Piet Maas
via Perlee. On of the customers became Piet Timmermans in Rotterdam, after
his own music marker died in 1934.
Feite Posthumus wrote in HP 1993, p. 195/6 about this
change: "Jacky Minning had new music books by Piet Maas, and they sounded
well on his 65 Gavioli scale. So Piet Timmermans ordered a trial book.
After that a series of markings by Piet Maas arrived for the "sheep heads"
(a series of Decap organs with the same style of prosceniums) of Piet Timmermans.
....... That was quite a new kind of music and we must say that the sound
palette of the Decap organs was used in a way quite different from the
Belgian style of Gilissen; the organs sounded nuch fuller, owing to more
"chords-currant-bread marking" ..... in general it could be said that the
organs had a richer sound and that was a gain, at least that is how we
see it". This difference in sound can be heard on old recordings of
the street organ "de Tijger".
Piet Maas used a marking board. He wrote the music on
paper strips, but sometimes directly on the cardboard. Unlike other markers
like Razenberg he did not draw measure lines, but he used pre-marked strips
on the edge of the marking board. Less known is the fact that he still
did barrels in the thirties for the few barrel organs that were still rented
in that time.
The music marking went on even after the breaking out
of WW II in 1940. As I stated before (HP 1998, p.173) Gijs Perlee was the
only one who could still deliver new music. It is unclear, however, if
many books were still ordered. The work ended when the German authorities
banned all playing of street organs in 1942.
After the war Piet Maas started working with Perlee again,
but in 1950 he decided to start his own business. He hired a workshop in
the Nieuwe Wagenstraat 2, which he had to share with Willem Klein, trader
in second hand goods and organ enthusiast. One could always find him there,
behind the harmonium, the markers board or the punching machine. His living
address changed a few times over the years.
It is sad to observe that Piet Maas, in his time, was considered by many to be a second-rate music-marker. This man, with his very short but very Dutch name has always been in the shadow of the man with the short but very German name, who too was making music for lots of organs in the twenties and thirties. Gijs Perlee even urged Piet Maas to copy the style of Carl Frei in the thirties. It is still visible on old paper types that Gijs Perlee even gave directions.
It is said that Piet Maas was found behind organs regularly, standing on his toes, looking how the arrangements of Frei were made. He was teased quite often:"Hey, Pete, you can't do that, can you?". His arrangement of "Skoda Lasky" was copied from Frei almost literally. After the war Carl Frei was out of competition, but soon music books made by Romke de Waard and Gerard Razenberg arrived, still found just a bit superior by many. Arrangements by Piet Maas generally sound best on smaller types of Belgian organs with both melody and countermelody sections, like the Pipo or de Witte. This is probably because he did not have to copy Frei's style there. He also made arrangements for fairground organs, especially after the war. Records were made of many of his arrangements.
Piet Maas composed several titles during the time he worked for Perlee. Sixteen of his compositions have been preserved in Perlee's workshop on the Westerstraat. Not all the compositions received a name, sometimes he just wrote "March 75" (for the 75-key Bursens organ het Kind), or just "Little waltz" or "Serenade". Further he wrote "composition Piet Maas JR." on the types. It is not clear why he added "JR." to his name. Perhaps he wanted to distinguish himself from his musical father, who had composed too. Nine of his compositions received names.
Piet Maas never married. He was known as a friendly man who liked any interest in his work. He was known to like much and good food and with much interest he followed the activities of the recently founded KDV, especially those of the Haarlem chapter. He had trouble following the latest developments in the late fifties like the rock-and-roll. He often wiped out the lines on the paper, saying "I cannot make anything out of this".
In his latest years he became more and more a lonely man, hearing and seeing things that were not seen by others. He died rather unexpectedly on the 28th May 1959, on his way home. He had fallen ill a few days before. He was buried in Diemen. In January 1962 an appeal was made to raise money for a gravestone in Het Pierement. This stone could be placed in May 1963.
In 1974 I composed a little waltz in Piet Maas' style,
which I called the "Piet Maas waltz" as a kind of homage.