The chest organ

Some of the Orgelpark’s instruments live secluded lives: especially our small chest organ does not stand out, hidden most of the time beneath its leather coat. The greater the surprise each time it is carried up onto the stage. It is especially loved for the jazz concerts. The musicians find that it plays much more directly than the larger organs in the Orgelpark, and the audience is enthusiastic as well: cute, such a small organ that takes up a humble role, thereby showing more of the organist.

Chest organ

Organ builder Elbertse from Soest built the small instrument in 2006, especially for the Orgelpark. The title ‘chest organ’ leaves little to the imagination: this is an organ shaped like a chest, relatively easy for two men to move. A sizeable amount of companies is specialized in building this type of organ, and some of them advertise that their small instruments fit right into a Volkswagen Golf car. Smart marketing, because this immediately makes it clear that John Doe would also be able to afford himself a true organ.

Use of space

Elbertse has used the space ingeniously: the back of the organ is made up of the largest wooden pipes of the Gedekt 8’ register. The technique has been kept very simple. The clavier is mounted on top. Each key operates a long wooden pin, opening the valve belonging to that key in the windchest. The windchest, the wooden chest that keeps the air pressurized and carries the pipes, is logically found in the bottom part of the organ. The organ has four registers: Gedekt 8’, Roerfluit 4’, Nasard 2 2/3’ and Octaaf 2’.