Hi Robbie,  Last Sunday, 26 March 2000, I visited the spring fair organ
event in Ulvenhout.  It was wonderful!  About twenty fair organs were
playing for two days at the premises of the de Voer Brothers
(well-known showmen in the Benelux).  There were organs by Wrede,
Wellershaus, Bruder (all firms), Frati of Berlin, and two wonderful
Ruth organs.  One of these was the style 38 Ruth that once belonged to
Mr. Maier in Switzerland.  You may have heard this organ last year on
the Bruder tour.

I have a CD of this last organ that was recorded recently here in the
Netherlands and our editor asked me for a review of this CD.  Amongst
the titles there is a great ragtime number that I have never heard
playing on any fair organ.  Would you be interested to help me find the
title and composer?

Cheers from Holland -- Spring is in the air now!  I'm a happy man!

Hans van Oost
Kring van Draaiorgelvrienden (KDV)

 [ For three months, since Hans wrote to me in March, we have tried to
 [ identify the song, with no luck so far.  It's a jolly March Two-Step,
 [ and Stephen Kent Goodman says it sounds very much like the songs by
 [ American composer F. H. Losey.  To my ears it sounds like a solo
 [ feature for two cornets, or maybe cornet and trombone, accompanied
 [ by a brass band.  We were quite hopeful when an Internet search
 [ turned up the F. H. Losey composition "Ida and Dot" at a music
 [ publisher's web site in Holland (right there in Hans' back yard!),
 [ but it turned out to be a different tune.
 [
 [ Hans has obtained permission from the organ owner (who produced the
 [ CD) so that the MPEG audio file and transcribed manuscripts might
 [ be placed at the MMD Sounds page.  Please see and hear the music at
 [ http://mmd.foxtail.com/Sounds/unkRuthRag.html  -- Robbie