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Fairground organs
Wellershaus fairground organ in childrens ride. One of the few organs left to serve their original purpose.
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While most street organs in the
Netherlands were of French or Belgian origin, most of the fairground organs in the
Netherlands were built in Germany: in Mülheim by Wellershaus, in Düsseldorf by the
Richter brs., en particularly in Waldkirch in the Black Forest,
where two, and later, three Bruder firms (Wilhelm Bruder Söhne,
Gebrüder Bruder and later Alfred Bruder) and, last but not least, A. Ruth u. Sohn
were domiciled. Only a relatively small amount of French organs was playing on the
fairgrounds, mainly the big 89-key Gaviolis.
Between 1900 and 1950 an organ was playing in almost all fairground rides; the smaller
ones stood in small carousels, swings and giant's strides, but in the main attrctions of
the twenties and thirties like shimmy palaces and dodgems one could hear the big Ruth and
Gavioli organs playing the classical repertoire of those days. In this way these
instuments added as much to the status of their owner as to the joy of the
listeners. |
| Contrary to the street
organs, the fair organs were used for their right purpose, so there was littele necessity
to apply changes to these intruments. As a result, most fairground organs are still
playing like they were delivered by the factory many decades ago. Sometimes changes had to
be made to the prosceniums in order to fit them into the ride. When the fairground organs were replaced gradually by sound installations
after 1950, most showmen decided to keep the organs, then already family heirlooms, for
their own pleasure. Most of these valuable instruments survived in this way. A number of
old and original fairground organs can still be listened to and admired by the public when
they play at organ rallies. |
page updated 14-12-2003
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