Four organs in Dordrecht’s history by Auke Hendrik Vlagsma

Auke Hendrik Vlagsma Four organs in Dordrecht’s history
Het ORGEL 104 (2008), nr. 5, 4-15 [summary]

The city of Dordrecht, from time immemorial a commercial city with international contacts, has a rich organ history involving native and foreign builders. The municipal archives contain much material on the city’s organ history that provides insight into organ building in Holland. Using this archival material, the history of four organs in Dordrecht that no longer exist is told.The church of the Augustinians had an organ around 1550. It was modernized in the 17th century, but we know nothing else about it except that it was replaced in 1775 by a new instrument made by Hendrik Hermann Hess, which functioned till the end of the 19th century.The Lutheran Church got its first organ in 1733, built by Vitus Wiegleb and Jan Christoffel Smit. The instrument was replaced in the late 18th century by an organ made by Andries Wolfferts, which re-used parts of the old organ.Thomas Houden from Ratingen (near Düsseldorf) built an instrument for the Waloon Church in 1728. Correspondence between the church trustees and the consultants Aeneas Veldcamps and François Pitton has been preserved. These organists’ knowledge of their organs and of Dutch organ building is clear from these letters, as is their distrust of foreign influences. The Houben organ was replaced in 1880 by a new organ by Camille Loret from Mechelen (Malines).