In Aid of the Brooklyn Women's Guild -- September 10, 2012

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde was the organist of the First Dutch Reformed Church in Brooklyn for many years. Here is an example of a 12-February-1870 program of a "Musical and Literary Entertainment" "In Aid of the Brooklyn Women's Guild." Doctor Van Der Weyde played the piano.  It is from the 26-February-1876 Brooklyn Eagle.

Plymouth Organ Concerts -- November 7, 2010

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde was the organist of the First Dutch Reformed Church in Brooklyn for many years. Here is an example of a 12-February-1870 program of secular music where he accompanied singers. It is from the 11-February-1870 Brooklyn Eagle.

It rained hard today.

Beauty and the Beast -- August 21, 2010

We went to the Golden Gate Theatre to the the stage version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. We enjoyed it. The little kids in the audience generally behaved even though it was a long show. A lot of scenes were done behind a scrim, but it was often hard to see.

After the show we went to Chevy's in South San Francisco for supper.

Happy Saint Joseph's Day #2 -- March 19, 2010

Happy Saint Joseph's Day to my fellow Joes. Joe Venuti was a jazz violinist who was famous for his quirky sense of humor. He sent Wingy Manone, the one-armed trumpet player, a gift of one cufflink. Venuti played with Bix Beiderbecke and the Boswell Sisters, but was most famous for his work with guitarist Eddie Lang.

It was very warm today. I did not put my coat on coming home. That is rare.

I went to the blood bank at lunch time.

Reminiscences of an Active Life #20 -- September 24, 2009

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde was born in Nymegen, Holland in 1813. He went on to live a remarkable life of achievement in the sciences and the arts. He died in America in 1895.

While serving as editor of Manufacturer and Builder Magazine, he wrote many articles, including the ones which gave this blog its name. In 1893 and 1894, he published a 23-part (!) memoir in the same periodical. Here is the twentieth part. He continues to talk about his interest in music.

The steam-powered calliope was the high-tech musical instrument of its day.

I assume the great exposition in Philadelphia was the 1876 Centennial Exposition.

The Roosevelt Brothers, Hillborne and Frank, were famous builders of large organs.

The image comes from the Library of Congress' wonderful American Memory site (http://memory.loc.gov/). LC-USZ62-76492, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society. It appeared in Harper's Weekly, 12-May-1866.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight

Part Nine

Part Ten

Part Eleven

Part Twelve

Part Thirteen

Part Fourteen

Part Fifteen

Part Sixteen

Part Seventeen

Part Eighteen

Part Nineteen

---

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 26, Issue 9, September 1894

(Continued from page 183.)

9th. Career as a Musician.--

The calliope is the loudest musical instrument in existence, because it consists of a series of steam whistles worked by high-pressure steam, and therefore is called after that goddess who, among the nine muses of the ancient Greek mythology, was distinguished for her silvery voice.

P. T. Barnum, who was always forward in exhibiting such objects as would attract public attention, was the first to add such an instrument to his passing show. It was made on the principle of a barrel organ, and worked by the turning of a crank, while a steam boiler and furnace was substituted for the bellows, and furnished the steam to whistles of different graduated lengths. This instrument required two men to operate it, one to attend to the boiler furnace, and another to turn the crank so as to grind out the tune.

An important improvement in this construction was to substitute for the barrel a regular organ key-board, so that an organist could play any tune he desired. The practical result, however, fell very short of expectations -- the tunes played by hand on the key-board did not sound at all as well as those which were ground out by turning the crank. The reason of this was soon very clear to me. Those who make it a business to prepare the cylinder, with the projections at the proper places, are careful to give every projection the correct length, so that the tones are not sustained after the next tone is sounded, which usually causes a discord. Now, it is a prevailing defect among ordinary piano players (who have not received proper instruction from a practically accomplished teacher) to be careless in the matter of lifting up each finger at the exact moment that the following key is to be struck by the next finger, so that often two adjoining keys are down at the same time, which makes a discord when done with any organ key-board, while the discord is more pronounced in proportion to the greater loudness of the instrument. As on the piano the tones are not sustained in the full force of the first blow, this bad habit is not so unpleasant on that instrument, but becomes so when a badly trained pianist tries his hand on an organ, which sustains every tone with its full force as long as the keys are kept down, and the bad effects are worse in the direct ratio of the loudness of the instrument, which, in the case under discussion, is the loudest of all, and must therefore also be the most intolerable.

There are several organists in New York and Brooklyn whom I could name, who do not treat their organ in the right way, by not lifting every finger exactly at the correct time; this makes the organ sound badly, and great injustice is thus done to both the organ and its maker.

Organ makers should be more careful when they engage persons to show off an organ they have on exhibition. The worst case of this kind that I saw and heard was in Philadelphia at the great exhibition which some years ago was organized under the auspices of the Franklin Institute. There was on exhibition a magnificent organ made by Roosevelt, of New York, who had engaged a player who kept it going to the great disgust of the surrounding exhibitors of other objects. Why such a performer happened to be engaged, I did not understand, but I had the satisfaction of receiving the thanks of the surrounding exhibitors who complained of the annoyance caused them by the regular player, who prevented any one else from playing at all, as he claimed to be the only one who had that privilege, and was engaged for the work.

The most striking and crucial test for such a player is to let him play passages with the flute stop; for instance, the famous flute concert composed for the organ by Rink. If the player has not the right touch, and plays slovenly, so as not to lift the finger from the key at the exact moment the next key is struck, the flute effect is utterly destroyed, as, of course, on a flute two tones cannot be produced at the same time.

When, now, a player with such slovenly habits. plays the calliope, the effect is excruciating. I heard an old, sensitive gentleman give his opinion of the calliope when he heard it for the first time under the hands of such a performer as is referred to. He said: “That instrument must be an invention of the devil; I believe it is intended to torment the damned in hell -- that is all that it is good for. I never want to hear it again.”

(To be Continued.)

Reminiscences of an Active Life #19 -- August 17, 2009

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde was born in Nymegen, Holland in 1813. He went on to live a remarkable life of achievement in the sciences and the arts. He died in America in 1895.

While serving as editor of Manufacturer and Builder Magazine, he wrote many articles, including the ones which gave this blog its name. In 1893 and 1894, he published a 23-part (!) memoir in the same periodical. Here is the nineteenth part. He continues to talk about his interest in music.

Elias P. Needham was an American inventor who created programmable musical devices which led to the player piano.

An orchestrion is a mechanical device that plays music on more than one instrument. The image is a postcard view of a Waltzen Orchestrion.

I can't identify Mr Gally (Galli?) as an orchestrion-maker.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight

Part Nine

Part Ten

Part Eleven

Part Twelve

Part Thirteen

Part Fourteen

Part Fifteen

Part Sixteen

Part Seventeen

Part Eighteen

---

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 26, Issue 8, August 1894

(Continued from page 153.)

9th. Career as a Musician.-- It is a pleasant recollection to me that I have contributed my mite to the development of the orchestrion, by demonstrating practically the capacities of the systems of perforated papers as a substitute for the barrels, by boldly taking such a step as to make, by such means, the execution of one of Beethoven’s masterpieces possible, and this even on such small instruments as those made by Mr. Needham.

A serious drawback, however, soon presented itself. It was that the holes had to be of quite large size, in order to admit wind enough for sounding the reeds. These large holes took much of the strength of the paper away, and the tearing up and rapid deterioration of them, when frequently used, was the inevitable result.

The correction of this defect was an example of the desirability that more than one mind should occupy itself with inventing improvements. The most important improvement was the balanced valves, of which one half moves against the air pressure and the other half with the air pressure, because the axis upon which it turns is made at the middle of the valve, so that only a small spring is needed to keep it closed, and very little power is required to open it.

The next invention was the pneumatic motion which opens quite a large valve by the pressure of the air passing through a very small hole in the paper. This reduced at once the size of the paper, from the length of 50 feet and width of 2 feet, to 20 inches in length and 3 inches in width, and made it possible to use a small round punch, making a series of holes, of which the effect was equivalent to the large hole.

Such organs are now successfully made in Germany, of which a fair specimen can be seen in the Atlantic Garden, New York, where they have a repetoire (sic – JT) of some 200 different compositions represented by 200 little sheets of paper, each of which, when placed in the organ, will cause the performance of, say Wagner’s Tannhaeuser overture, in all its details.

We are happy to state that such organs are now made in more than one city of the United States.

Foremost among those who, in the United States, have made themselves meritorious in the improvements in the methods of producing music automatically, stands Mr. Gally, who had previously distinguished himself in the manufacture of improved printing presses.

As he holds an eminent position in this branch, having been foremost in its improvement, we will in our next devote to his improvements in this line a separate article.

(To be Continued.)

Reminiscences of an Active Life #18 -- July 13, 2009

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde was born in Nymegen, Holland in 1813. He went on to live a remarkable life of achievement in the sciences and the arts. He died in America in 1895.

While serving as editor of Manufacturer and Builder Magazine, he wrote many articles, including the ones which gave this blog its name. In 1893 and 1894, he published a 23-part (!) memoir in the same periodical. Here is the eighteenth part. He continues to talk about his interest in music.

Elias P. Needham was an American inventor who created programmable musical devices which led to the player piano. The image shows a Needham Musical Cabinet.

I like Doctor Van Der Weyde's experiments like putting the paper in backwards. I would like to hear the "Hungarian Rhapsody" that way.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight

Part Nine

Part Ten

Part Eleven

Part Twelve

Part Thirteen

Part Fourteen

Part Fifteen

Part Sixteen

Part Seventeen

---

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 26, Issue 7, July 1894

(Continued from page 133.)

9th. Career as an Musician.-- As explained before, in case there is a set of chimes in a church tower which automatically performs hourly, being driven by the mechanism of the clock, the tune they perform must be changed twice a year, and it is the duty of the organist to make this change.

The knowledge and the practice I had obtained in this kind of work was unexpectedly of great advantage to me after my arrival in the United States, especially in a financial way. The cause of this was that an invention had been made by the late E. P. Needham, which he applied as a substitute for a key-board to some of the melodeons he manufactured. In this way they could be played in an automatic manner by turning a crank, either by hand or with the feet, acting upon the pedals, which at the same time worked the bellows. When, at his invitation by letter, I came to see and hear his new device, I found that it was especially meritorious on account of its simplicity, and that it promised very great progress in the future. These expectations were, in the course of time, fully realized, as the invention has developed into the improved orchestrion, which can now be worked by strips of perforated paper in place of heavy, bulky barrels, which made the orchestrion, in fact, a colossal barrel organ.

Mr. Needham’s invention consisted of an elongated, narrow box, with holes in the top. Every hole was provided interiorly with a reed, which could be put in vibration by a current of air entering the hole. The extension of tones was two octaves of the diatomic scale; or fifteen tones, which, by my advice, he soon increased to twenty-five tones on two octaves of the chromatic scale, which increased enormously the capacity for rendering all kinds of music. A sheet of paper perforated with holes, was made to pass over the holes in the top of the box, which the paper closed up, as the bellows worked, by suction; when the sheet of paper was made to slide forward, and one or more of the holes in the paper came over the holes in the box, the air entered and sounded the corresponding reed, and in this way made it possible to cause a simple perforated sheet of paper to produce melody and harmony, when the holes in the paper were made in the right places.

The first music I heard performed on this instrument was "Old Hundred." This was somewhat defective in its harmonies, whereupon Mr. Needham gave me a sheet of paper, with the request to mark with a lead pencil the places where the holes ought to be made, in order to obtain a more perfect harmony. This was done, and, on hearing it, he requested me to attempt a popular song, such as "The Last Rose of Summer." After hearing this, he concluded to reproduce in this way the principal hymns of Moody and Sankey, who were then very popular, and attracted large audiences in the building now known as Madison Square Garden.

One hundred of these Moody and Sankey tunes were finished in one month, when a successful attempt was made to mark out overtures, operatic selections, sets of quadrilles, etc., some of the papers being more than fifty feet long, and making a very respectable bundle.

The highest artistic effort was to mark out an extract of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, in which not only the slow movement, but also the majestic finale, turned out to be especially successful – of course, considering the simple means by which it was produced.

Several new experiments were made, such as composing a waltz in imagination and marking it on the paper, and after the holes had been cut, hearing it for the first time, Mr. Needham liked it so much that he called it "The Needham Musical Cabinet Waltz."

Mr. Needham then furnished me with such an instrument with which to make musical experiments at my house, which I did to the great amusement of my musical friends as well as of myself. For instance, when running the paper backward a piece of music could be tested how it would sound when played in that way; then the effect was simply ridiculous. The paper also could be placed upside down, when the bass notes were heard in the treble, and the inverted melody was in the bass. This was more ridiculous still, especially when the tunes were simple, well-known melodies.

Experience proved that when the music was simple, it made an enormous difference, and sounded very complex and difficult to understand. There were a few pieces in which it made little difference which way the paper was moved, backward or forward, or upside down, it was all the same -- it sounded always very complicated, learned and classical, as some of my friends called it. One of such pieces in which it made no difference if the paper was run in the opposite direction as originally intended, was a Hungarian rhapsody by Lizt. This piece, whether it was played upside down or backward, made the same very complicated effect upon ordinary ears. Such experiments are only possible with the system of perforated paper, and would, of course, be utterly impossible with a barrel organ.

One remarkable composition gave very great satisfaction; it was a fugue by one of the old classical composers (Scarlatti, I believe). In order to do justice to the spirit which prevailed in it, it had to be played in a very rapid tempo, and this was almost impossible for a player except with extraordinary long, patient practice. When the paper was once prepared, it was, of course, just as easy to play it fast as to play it slowly, and the experiment gave me great satisfaction, as with a very rapid motion the effect was surprisingly fine and spirited, which was just what I had reason to expect.

Mr. Needham then soon printed a catalogue, and sold many of these rollers at prices differing in proportion to their length.

(To be Continued.)

Reminiscences of an Active Life #17 -- June 12, 2009

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde was born in Nymegen, Holland in 1813. He went on to live a remarkable life of achievement in the sciences and the arts. He died in America in 1895.

While serving as editor of Manufacturer and Builder Magazine, he wrote many articles, including the ones which gave this blog its name. In 1893 and 1894, he published a 23-part (!) memoir in the same periodical. Here is the seventeenth part. He continues to talk about his interest in music.

The tower of the town hall in Heusden was demolished by the Nazis in 1944 in such
a way that it killed one tenth of the population, who were hiding in the cellar.

The image comes from Manufacturer and Builder Volume 4, Issue 10, October 1872, page 233.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight

Part Nine

Part Ten

Part Eleven

Part Twelve

Part Thirteen

Part Fourteen

Part Fifteen

Part Sixteen

---

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 26, Issue 6, June 1894

(Continued from page 107.)

9th. Career as an Organist.-- My last teacher, De Vries, often expressed the opinion that an organ wants improvisation by an improvisator to bring out what there is in it. This, of course, he can only do after having first made himself acquainted with the resources offered by the peculiarities of its construction, which varies considerably in different organs. In fact, they are never exactly like one another, wherefore it is absolutely necessary for a performer to examine and try privately any large organ previous to giving a public performance on the same.

This last remark reminds me of the extra duty imposed upon the organists of preeminently good organs. Their duty is to give on some week day, for one or two hours, a public performance on their organs, when they may bring out such beauties of their instruments as are not suitable to be exhibited during public worship.

Large organs contain stops which give imitations of various instruments, such as the flute, clarionet (sic – JT), cornet, etc. With such an organ, having always three or four key-boards, an organist can entertain an audience as fully as a whole orchestra with its solo players, wherefore organ concerts, in the hands of proficient performers, are very enjoyable to the public, which in Holland never fails to take advantage of the opportunity.

My teacher, De Vries, enjoyed a well-deserved reputation for his finish and taste in piano playing, and in consequence had so great a number of pupils that he was glad to let me often attend to organ-playing not only on week days, but also during religious services, of which my relatives, especially my mother, were very proud. It was so good a training for me, that on the first occasion that a position as organist in a neighboring town had to be given by competitive examination, I was far ahead of the other candidates.

The city referred to was the small city of Heusden, North Braband, with a very large church. The church authorities advertised, as customary, in the public papers, that on a stated day a public competition would take place, when candidates would be given a chance to perform before examiners, who were not allowed to know who was playing, but had to decide by number who performed the best.

When I arrived at the appointed time, I found thirty other candidates, to each of which was, of course, given a chance to examine the organ to be performed upon. Then we had to draw lots to decide the order of performance, while the sexton took charge of all of them and brought them to a house in the vicinity where the organ could not be heard, as no one was permitted to hear the others play, as this would give a great advantage to those who had to play later, because they all had to perform the same programme (sic – JT) which they found on the desk over the organ key-board. Therefore, when one had finished, the sexton went for another one to take his place.

My turn came much sooner than I expected, for the reason, as I was told, that half the candidates had withdrawn when they came to the organ key-boards and saw the programme. These programmes were about as follows, but varied according to the taste of the examiner or examiners:

1st. Introductory voluntary, to begin in the key of B minor, modulate through the keys a G major, C minor, and close in the key of A flat major.

2d. Play in that key one verse of the melody of Psalm 65 with the proper harmony, modulate to a lower key, and play the next verse in that key.

3d. Execute the thorough bass indicated by bass notes and figures on the music sheet before you.

4th. Harmonize the chromatic scale upward and downward; play scale with the right hand and harmony with the left.

5th. Play the chromatic scale with the pedals, and harmonize with both hands on full organ.

This is only intended to give an idea of the style of programmes used on such occasions; the programme on that occasion I have forgotten, as this event took place some sixty years ago.

After the information was given me that I had been elected, a paper was shown me testifying that I was the only candidate who had satisfactorily performed all the numbers of the programme. It was signed by all the examiners.

Attached to the church was an old tower with heavy bells, which were rung to call the congregation; but the chimes of bells often found on church towers were here on a smaller square tower on the City Hall, where there was clock-work moving the hands of four dials, one on each side, while at every hour and half hour the chimes played a lively tune before striking the hour. As people do not want to hear the same tune always, this tune has to be changed twice a year, which has to be done by the organist, who therefore has to understand the structure of a barrel organ, on the principle of which the chimes of bells ring automatically every hour. This is common in Holland, also in my native town, where I had assisted the organist to perform the work of changing the old tune to a new one.

I was also examined on this subject, of which I was the only candidate who knew anything about it, and of which the others did not understand anything at all.

(To be Continued.)

Reminiscences of an Active Life #16 -- May 9, 2009

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde was born in Nymegen, Holland in 1813. He went on to live a remarkable life of achievement in the sciences and the arts. He died in America in 1895.

While serving as editor of Manufacturer and Builder Magazine, he wrote many articles, including the ones which gave this blog its name. In 1893 and 1894, he published a 23-part (!) memoir in the same periodical. Here is the sixteenth part. He continues to talk about his interest in music.

"Wilhelmus van Nassauwe" refers to the "Het Wilhelmus", the national anthem of the Netherlands and the story of William of Orange. Piet Hein captured the Spanish treasure fleet in 1628 and became a folk hero.

The image comes from the Library of Congress' American Memory Project. It is the cover of sheet music for his "Anti Bloomer Scottisch for the Piano Forte, respectfully dedicated to the ladies who dislike the Bloomer Costume and are opposed to its adoption." What a title.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight

Part Nine

Part Ten

Part Eleven

Part Twelve

Part Thirteen

Part Fourteen

Part Fifteen

---

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 26, Issue 5, May1894

(Continued from page 88.)

9th. Career as a Musician.-- When my only sister, who was eight years my senior, had reached the age of twenty, and for a few years had frequented society, attracting admirers by her beauty, she saw the advantage possessed by young ladies who had received some musical training and could perform on the piano. She became then very anxious to learn music, and we formed a kind of conspiracy to attempt to overcome our father’s prejudices in this regard, and had soon secured the cooperation of our mother, when, with her consent, I bought a second-hand piano for 25 guldens ($10 United States coin), which I took from my little savings bank, of which my mother was the keeper, as well as three other savings banks -- those of my sister, father and herself. These banks were chiefly provided with rare coins that came to hand in my father’s business, and which he occasionally gave as a recompense.

This piano had an extent of four octaves from C, with two ledger lines below the bass staff to C, and two ledger lines above the treble staff. The alleged reason was that the human voice did not reach lower or higher, and that there was no reason to go beyond this instrument made by nature.

When the piano was in the house, and I played for my father the patriotic tunes of his boyhood, Wilhelmus van Nassauwe, and of Piet Hein, who captured the Spanish silver fleet, he became reconciled, as the latter name had been given him out of patriotism, and he gave it again to me.

Never perhaps did a greater change take place in the opinion of an old man than was the case with my father, who said: If it is settled that the boy must learn music, he will have the best teachers. As he found that my mathematical teacher had progressed with me through the harmonic proportions, he concluded that it was time to bring this knowledge to a practical application, and went himself to visit Prof. George Wilhelm Roehner, who had earned a great name in Germany as a teacher in the theory of music, and engaged him to instruct me in that branch. This instruction consisted in practice of thorough bass, contrepoint, canon, and the fugues, writing harmony to given melodies, and vice versa, evolving good melodies by transition of the constituent parts of a series of harmonical combinations, etc.

Such training is necessary for an organist in Holland, as the congregations sing all in unison and the organist plays from the single notes they sing, and selects the harmonies in accordance with the sentiment expressed by the words.

The next musical event for me was that a new organist was appointed in the cathedral to play the great organ before mentioned; and when my father heard that the new organist, named De Vries was a pupil of Hummel, who was a pupil of Mozart, he said, in a joking way, that he was going to make Mozart, musically, my grandfather. I never had a teacher in any branch whom I loved so dearly as De Vries, who was so kind and always so much encouraged me. He was a great and most finished improvisator, and to his criticism on my attempts in this line I am largely indebted for my success and the ease with which I still invent novel musical combinations. I have read complaints of old composers that they frequently fail to conceive new musical ideas, but I must say that, notwithstanding I have passed fourscore years and more, I invent a new melody as easily as ever, and think that my last compositions are the best.

(To be Continued.)

Reminiscences of an Active Life #15 -- April 19, 2009

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde was born in Nymegen, Holland in 1813. He went on to live a remarkable life of achievement in the sciences and the arts. He died in America in 1895.

While serving as editor of Manufacturer and Builder Magazine, he wrote many articles, including the ones which gave this blog its name. In 1893 and 1894, he published a 23-part (!) memoir in the same periodical. Here is the fifteenth part. He continues to music.

General Krayenhoff was Cornelis Rudolphus Theodorus Krayenhoff, a doctor, scientist and soldier.

The image comes from Manufacturer and Builder Volume 4, Issue 10, October 1872, page 233.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight

Part Nine

Part Ten

Part Eleven

Part Twelve

Part Thirteen

Part Fourteen

---

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 26, Issue 4, April 1894

(Continued from page 64.)

9th. Career as a Musician.-- In the year 1828, an event took place such as usually happens only once, in a generation -- namely, the colossal organ in the, cathedral of my native town (Nymegen), which had been built some fifty years before, and had become celebrated for the beauty of its intonation and the excellent acoustic properties of the church in which it was placed, had to be overhauled for the purpose of cleaning and repairing. It was one of the celebrated organs in the Netherlands, where the different Protestant churches are proud of the excellence of their organs, on which, on certain days of the week, the organist is in duty-bound to perform. for the benefit of all lovers of music, who never fail to take advantage of the opportunity, and especially strangers, who in the summer season visit that city in order to enjoy the lovely scenery offered by the variety of the surrounding hills and valleys, and on which the city itself is built. The public parks, situated on the highest parts, offer the most charming view of the highly-cultivated bottom lands of the German Rhine, which, when entering the territory of the Netherlands, divides itself into three branches -- the Yssel, the lower Rhine, and the river Waal, or Vaal, which latter is the largest, and, in fact, the only branch which is navigable the whole year round. This fact makes Nymegen a very important city, being on the great highways by water or land for entrance and exit from the territory of the Netherlands.

English divines, as well as laymen, have been in the habit of ridiculing what they call the extravagantly large size of the organs built in the Protestant churches of Holland. This ridicule is also frequently found repeated in the musical literature of England. The cause of this erroneous judgment is to be found in the fact that the established Church of England follows a service, or custom, originally derived from the Roman Catholic service, and gives no chance for truly congregational singing, in which every member of the congregation joins, to the number of several hundreds, and even thousands, and requiring for its leadership a colossal organ, which, however, may be insufficient to disturb the congregation when once started in a well-known choral melody; they hold their own, and may compel the organist to be silent if he has not the presence of mind to keep in unison with the congregation.

Large as these organs are, they cannot in power compete with a great number of the divine instruments -- the human voice -- when united in a plain choral melody. Like a full orchestra may predominate over a single instrument, a large church organ may predominate over an orchestra, but a united chorus of many human voices will predominate over even a large church organ.

The event referred to, that the large organ was to be overhauled, induced me to make the acquaintance of the organ-builder who had undertaken the labor, and I found him to be willing to give me all the information I wished, of which I made a liberal use, so as to satisfy my desire for information about the details of an instrument, which, in regard to power, may be considered the king of musical instruments.

Any one in the least familiar with the construction of large church organs, will agree that it is one of the most admirable products which human ingenuity has contrived, and may be considered equally meritorious as a dynamo, an electric motor, steam engine, hydraulic motor, etc., all of which have recently been made serviceable to produce the most necessary element in the organ namely, the blast of air which gives it life, and, as we may truly say, also the soul, which inspires it with the power to produce the religious emotions so desirable in the practice of public divine worship.

General Krayenhoff, one of my fathers old friends, on hearing of my interest in the structure of church organs, called my attention to the fact that the science of acoustics was very far behind most all other branches of physics; thus, for instance, in optics everything was based on positive mathematical principles, by which the curvature of lenses required for telescopes and microscopes could be calculated a priori with absolute certainty, while in acoustics a great deal was still subject to empiricism. He added that if I would contribute something to the progress of science, there was a wide field open in this branch of pursuit, while in optics almost everything had been determined and settled long ago. He advised me to make a specialty of acoustics. I did so, but my love for progress induced me to take some other steps, and led me to give more attention to that most charming application of acoustics -- music.

There was one inducement which perhaps was the main cause for this tendency -- namely, the attraction of "forbidden fruit." I had often heard my father say that his boy might study anything he chose to learn, except music. Why? Because all the musicians he had ever known were men of very loose moral character, especially those who played the fiddle. This might have been so when he was a boy in 1780, but there were in 1840 several respectable violin players in the town.

(To be Continued.)

Good Shepherd Fall Festival -- October 25, 2008

This weekend Good Shepherd School has been having its Fall Festival. Last night they had a nice blues band. It was a beautiful evening, but it got cool later on. Today it was warm and sunny. Attendance was good. We helped some kids prepare for a big trivia contest that will be held Monday at Junipero Serra High School.

I took the photo last night at Good Shepherd.

Merl Saunders died. He came to Good Shepherd and played for my daughter's class. His grandson was a classmate. Nice man.

More iPod News -- April 11, 2008

Last week I inherited an iPod Shuffle. On the bus, I listened to music from Boogie Woogie Flu (http://boogiewoogieflu.blogspot.com/). This week I listened to a podcast about the upcoming Slapsticon from Stolen Moments (http://rudyfan.libsyn.com/). I wish I could go. Then I listened to some old radio shows from The Third Banana (http://thirdbanana.blogspot.com/). I'd like to try a podcast. When I got a cassette recorder in the Seventh Grade, I made my own radio shows.

Phil Frank and Joe Zawinul, RIP - September 14, 2007

I was sad to learn a week or so ago that Phil Frank was going to stop drawing his local comic strip, Farley, for the San Francisco Chronicle. Now he is gone. I remember Farley years ago, when it was a syndicated strip, Travels With Farley. All the news stories mention Farley's jobs as reporter and park ranger, but I remember when he was a cable car conductor.

Having a local comic strip allowed Frank to talk about San Francisco issues in a way that no except Herb Caen equalled.

We'll all miss the bears, the cats, Baba Rebop, and the bird. Good-bye, Phil.

I know I had heard Joe Zawinul's stuff on KJAZ, like his work with Cannonball Adderly, but I don't think I was aware of his name until I heard Miles Davis' Bitches Brew and saw him in the credits. I remember a friend lent me the first Weather Report album. I found it more accessible than Bitches Brew. I listened to it many times and was reluctant to return it. I finally broke down and found the money to buy a copy for myself.

Thank you, Joe for all the music.

One more thing: The other day, I visited the California Historical Society's current exhibit, "Past Tents". It made me want to go camping, something I haven't done for years.

Catching Up #1 - September 12, 2007

I had a great time participating in the Slapstick Blog-a-Thon. Now I need to do a little catching-up.

1. Luciano Pavarotti passed on last week. He had a remarkable voice. My grandfather talked about Caruso; I'm sorry he didn't live to hear Pavarotti. Pavarotti's voice was not so dark, but he could do many things with it.

I went to see him in person once, at the Opera House, in a memorial to Mayor George Moscone. Unfortunately, Pavarotti did not show up. In his place, they had Frank Sinatra. That was all right ;0)

2. Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of 09/11/2001. I remembered a dream I had had the next night, of an airliner crashing into the Bank of America building.

3. Saturday, we went to the Cartoon Art Museum on Mission Street. The main exhibit was a show of political cartoons from around the world called "Why Do They Hate Us?" Many of them were not as harsh as what we do in this country. There was also a Peanuts exhibit, Edward Gorey's designs for Dracula, animation items, including two drawings by Winsor McKay, and a nice selection from the general collection. While the family visited the Gap store at Powell and Market, I watched two cable cars get towed away because the cable had stopped. I'll post videos on YouTube.

4. This may be the only time I ever mention football in this blog, but Monday I got off the SamTrans bus at the park and ride lot in Pacifica, and it was full of cars. And there were a bunch of people dressed in red. Then I realized that the Forty-Niners were playing Monday Night Football at Candlestick. I had never seen a Ballpark Express bus there on a weekday because Monday Night Football games usually start around 5pm. This game was starting at 7:15pm for some reason.

The bus, 118, an articulated, was signed for line 810.

Max Roach, RIP - August 19, 2007

Max Roach passed on the other day. I was surprised to read that he was 83, and yet he had been around as long as I can remember. They used to play his music and talk about him on KJAZ. He would turn up on television sometimes. He always looked really serious, with the glasses and the suits. He wasn't one of the musicians I wanted to be when I grew up (I never wanted to be a drummer), but he was always there.

He subbed in Duke Ellington's orchestra when he was 16. He was one of the creators of bebop. He played on "Birth of the Cool". There aren't many people left (Lee Konitz?) who played on those sessions.

He composed, he taught. He led a good life.