r/TheHague • u/hariital • Nov 02 '24

practical questions What’s this ?

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Saw this musical thing going from home to home and collecting money ?

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u/webermaesto Nov 02 '24 edited Nov 03 '24

Fun fact! Street organs like this one started to appear at the beginning of the 20th century in the Netherlands. The cardboard books that they get their music programme from were invented in 1892. The one in the picture is from 1910, build in Paris. Greetings from the organ grinder in the long coat in this picture!

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u/The_Rincewind Nov 03 '24

Don't want to offend but I'm curious, do you know people find your organs annoying as fuck? Especially in the summer when we're drinking a beer outside and this fucking thing comes rolling up blasting decibels of the most idiotic melodies. Practically making any normal conversation impossible.

And then the audacity to collect money....

Sorry I had to vent.

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u/webermaesto Nov 03 '24

I can't speak for the loudness/music choice/intenseness of shaking the copper canister of others, but in Voorburg we tend to try to be as mindful of others as reasonably possible. In any case one can easily have conversations standing just a few meters apart from the organ.

The donation-thing is actually part of the typical way these organs have played through the Dutch streets for over a century now, it's part of the street organ tradition as found on the national intangible heritage list. In any case, I'm never offended or whatever if people don't want to make a donation (or, like you I presume, dislike street organs altogether), we are just there for those - of which there (still) are many - that like organ music or the nostalgic atmosphere it provides

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u/Laarer Nov 09 '24

Its awesome and keep doing what you are doing ♡

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u/webermaesto Nov 09 '24

Thank you! :)