When the theatre organ was first used on the radio, there was much criticism on the sound of the organ from the AVRO (Algemene Verenigde Radio Omroep [General united radio broadcasting company]) listeners. Some of the critiques for instance talked about jazz as being played by black people who were “destroying white society” (Doesburg, 1996, p. 24) and the theatre organ was at times described as a “fair-ground like instrument” (Doesburg, 1996, p. 24). However, because of a rivalry between different broadcasting companies, the AVRO eventually had to purchase an own organ. When the AVRO decided to do so, it was clear that this instrument would have to be an organ fit to play both popular and more serious music. As AVRO director Vogt said: “The organ […] should serve as a concert-, church- and theatre organ and should truly be the best of what is available of this kind” (Cramer, Den Dikken, Marx & Weltens, 2002, p. 150). 


Standaart, a Dutch organ builder, was contacted, and asked to build two organs, a church organ and a theatre organ. During the building process, however, Standaart went bankrupt and the AVRO had to look for another organ builder to complete the work, or rather continue the work. Most of what Standaart had done already was preparatory work and not much of the theatre organ which is currently being reconstructed is actually made by Standaart. The AVRO then hired John Compton, a British organ builder, who worked according to Robert Hope-Jones’s principles to finish Standaart’s work. As a consequence the theatre organ became a more advanced organ, it could be argued. For instance, Compton used a special electro-pneumatic technique in the relay chamber which gave his organs more possibilities to turn on and off individual (sub)instruments. Next to this, the sound of Compton’s organs was also different (at first) from that of the Standaart organs which the other broadcasting companies had, as Compton made an English Romantic sounding organ, which means the sound was more mellow (Doesburg, 1996,p. 115).


Coming to the way the theatre organ was used, it is clear from literature and newspaper clippings that this organ functioned two or three times a day until the end of the 1940s, most often by Pierre Palla. Sometimes there was an orchestra or a group of musicians playing together with the organ, while on other days the organ functioned as a solo instrument and could even be used to accompany a radio drama. The organ was for instance well-known for being played on every day at seven in the evening, when Henk de Wolf told children a bedtime story. This lasted from 1938 until Pierre Palla retired, while the programme itself continued until 1970. Despite the fact that the organ was still used for this children’s programme, from the late 1940s onwards, both the AVRO and the VARA organs were used more and more infrequently, and with the developments in popular music in the latter half of the 1950s and the early 1960s, the instrument was not considered appropriate anymore as a solo instrument on the radio. With the arrival of a third radio channel in Hilversum, one specifically designed to play popular music, the theatre disappeared of the radar, coupled with the fact that most of the organists retired or died before the 1960s were over.

 

 

References


  • Cramer, M., Den Dikken, A., Marx, R. & Weltens, A. (2002). Kathedralen en Luchtkastelen van de Omroep in Hilversum. Zwolle: Waanders. 
  • Doesburg, C.L. (1996). Orgels bij de omroep in Nederland. Naarden: Strengholt.

 

 

The History Of The Pierre Palla Organ

 

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