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Whereas the 1950s are not known for their high quality in new organ building, especially not when dealing with pneumatic constructions, the SICR's instrument is an exception to the good side. As a first, all speaking stops (except the Prestant 8' in the Pedal, which is shared with the Great) have their own rank(s) of pipes, resulting in a natural buildup of the sound and ample dynamic possibilities. Furthermore, the pipe work's scaling and voicing has been very successful, ensuring an interesting sound for every combination of stops while the organ never makes a brutal impression.

In a later stage I plan to add more on the instrument's history. A while ago I came into contact with Mr. H. van der Steen, known as the founder of Trans World Radio, who turned out to be the erstwhile assistant of the organ builder Olieman, and who plans to publish an overview of Olieman's work shortly.

In 2002, after the church received a sizable bequest, it was decided to give the organ a main overhaul. The Scheuerman firm of Rotterdam was commissioned to do this. Since then, Henk Scheuerman has restored and painted the bellows and revoiced the pipes in the Choir organ; more importantly, the Choir's Larigot was replaced by a new Sesquialter and the section was enriched with a new Roerfluit 4'.

This Larigot 1 1/3' (or so it was called) in reality turned out to be a rather awful-sounding two-rank Scharff, which Mr. Van der Steen denied of ever having placed into the organ! Let's see what the church's archives have to say on this...

Recently (6 March 2005) some more light could be shed on this issue. It appears that organ builder C.H. van Oosten of Overschie worked on the organ in 1967, on which occasion several stops were revoiced (Prestant 8', 4', Mixtuur) and the Larigot 1 1/3' was replaced by a Cymbel. I learnt this from Mr. G. Huijzers of Rotterdam, the current possessor of Van Oosten's archive. The facture of the pipes of this Cymbel agreed with the other Olieman pipes, so that I take it that Van Oosten remade the Larigot for this purpose. The stop indicator was not changed, so that this read "Larigot" up to 2004.

End of December, 2004, the console of the organ was replaced by a new one. It is hoped that now the electrical contacts will function without fault, and the bench will no longer be wobbly. To that, the new console has been equipped with sub- and superoctave couplers. This operation is now still going on and will be finished within some weeks more. After that, there will be a festive concert on Sunday, 6 March, after the church service at 12:15pm.

Some photographs of the operation (made by Christiaan van de Woestijne; click on the thumbnails to get a larger version):


To be continued!