The church of Harkstede houses two organs: a reconstructed Schnitger organ from 1696 and the Eertman organ from 1908. The reconstruction of the Schnitger organ was inaugurated on 15 October 2025. James L. Wallmann wrote the article below about this unique instrument...
On 11 April 2025, a new organ was inaugurated in the Dutch Reformed Koepelkerk in Renswoude. It is a remarkable instrument, not least because it is the first opus of the organ building firms Mense Ruiter Orgelmakers of Ten Post and Van Rossum Orgelbouw of Wijk en...
The March 2024 issue of Het Orgel was devoted to improvisation. It included a contribution by Jean-Pierre Leguay, the now 86-year-old organist emeritus of Notre-Dame in Paris. The organ teachers at Codarts Conservatoire in Rotterdam, Christian Schmitt and Zuzana...
Sander Booij belongs to the younger generation of organ builders. I spoke to him in Uithuizermeeden on the evening when the Mense Ruiter organ in the Nederlandse Gereformeerde Kerk was returned to service. Built in 1985, the instrument had undergone major maintenance...
In the nineteenth century, Catholic emancipation ushered in a period of flourishing organ building in North Brabant. A striking number of local organ builders were also accomplished organists. Was this merely coincidence, or was something else going on? And did the...
The cathedral of Auch houses one of the finest organ cases in France, made for the organ built by Jean de Joyeuse. The organ stands on a gallery designed and constructed in 1689 by three architects: Barthélemy Duran, his son Pierre, and Barthélemy Biamouret. The...
A few years ago, I was asked to play at a funeral. The day before the service, the family made a request: the deceased had been very fond of Una Mattina by Ludovico Einaudi. Would I be willing to play it? I agreed. I did not yet know the composer, but immediately...
The Sonata Eroïca, perhaps the Prélude et Fugue, Op. 121, or a small character piece such as Chant de May, possibly even the Symphonie concertante. Most Dutch organists who are asked, à l’improviste, to compile a list of works by the composer Joseph Jongen will...
The connection between North German organ music and the organs of Arp Schnitger may now seem self-evident. A closer look at the careers of the great North German masters – Heinrich Scheidemann, Jacob Prätorius Jr., Matthias Weckmann, Johann Adam Reincken, and...
In this article, Rogér van Dijk examines the life and work of the organ builder Hendricus Dominicus Lindsen (1794–1860), a now relatively little-known representative of nineteenth-century Dutch organ building. Drawing on archival sources and surviving instruments, he...
Mende, the capital of the département of Lozère, possesses a Romanesque cathedral that serves as the episcopal church of the Diocese of Mende, dating from the fourteenth century. The church is dedicated to Saint Privat, the first to preach the Gospel in the Gévaudan...
Is it a coincidence? In 2025, shortly after one another and independently, several meetings took place in which more or less the same subject was on the agenda: the future of the organ. In May around thirty colleagues gathered in the Pieterskerk in Utrecht, where...
One could hardly invent it: a typically Roman Catholic instrument is built for a markedly Protestant province. It subsequently ends up in a Protestant church situated in an emphatically Roman Catholic environment. Finally, it returns to the Protestant province, but is...
In this journal, little or no attention has been paid in recent decades to teaching methods for organ instruction for amateurs. Annemiek Zeldenrust seeks to redress this situation. Before commencing her organ studies at the Prins Claus Conservatoire in Groningen, she...
Le Puy-en-Velay is one of the most remarkable towns in the Auvergne. It was an important pilgrimage centre on the route to Santiago de Compostela and was frequently visited by pilgrims. The cathedral dates from the eleventh century and has been subject to continuous...
Wim Janssen (80) was employed by Verschueren Organ Building from 1962 until 2006. From 1995 onwards, in addition to his work as an intonator, he also served as managing director. He mastered all aspects of the craft. In a conversation with him, developments in organ...
If, among organists—and especially among his former pupils—the name Johan van Dommele is mentioned, it invariably evokes stories filled with fond memories and, above all, numerous anecdotes. His son Rik wrote an engaging biography, while Cor van Wageningen offered a...
