Great Haarlem organ Grote Kerk St Bavokerk Protestant cathedral Sint Bavo church organs Christian Müller Jan van Logteren
The Grote Kerk or is a Protestant church and former Catholic cathedral located on the central market square in the Dutch city of Haarlem. Another Haarlem church called the Cathedral of Saint Bavo now serves as the main cathedral for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam. The organ of the Sint-Bavo church (the Christiaan Müller organ) is one of the world's great organs. It was built by Christian Müller and Jan van Logteren, from Amsterdam, between 1735 and 1738; upon completion it was the largest organ in the world with 60 voices and 32-feet pedal-towers. In Moby-Dick (1851), Herman Melville describes the inside of a whale's mouth: "Seeing all these colonnades of bone so methodically ranged about, would you not think you were inside of the great Haarlem organ, and gazing upon its thousand pipes?" Many famous people used this organ, including Mendelssohn, Händel and the 10-year old Mozart who played it in 1766. The organ was modified a number of times in the 19th and 20th century. These changes were undone in the renovation between 1959 and 1961. Between 1987 and 2000 work was performed on the voicing of the organ. Today concerts are regularly held in the church, and all through the year special opening times are organized so the public can walk in free of charge to listen to this famous organ in action. A local story goes to say that the bass of the organ was so low, the mortar in between the brimstones started to brittle to nothing.
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Photo credit: © SOTK2011 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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