Zaandam Pluer organ - an update and review

When my wife suggested we take a cruise to Hawaii I gladly jumped at
the chance to cruise aboard the MS Zaandam on December 5th, 2007, with
its "Grand Organ" installed in the ship's atrium.  Holland America is
our normal line of choice and I was very much looking forward to
hearing some of the wonderful timbres of authentic Dutch made pipework,
so this was to be a double treat.  To say that I was sadly disappointed
would be an understatement.  Here is my review.

The Pluer organ is played only when the ship is at sea and not during
port days.  The playing times are 11 AM, 12 Noon, 2 PM, and 4 PM.  The
playing time averages about 3 minutes in length with some selections
being very short and others with a medley of tunes being longer.

Sadly the organ is in poor condition.  From the minute the blower comes
on and the wind is up there are several moaning pipes that drone on
until the blower is shut off and the wind stops.  These ciphers are not
all that distracting thanks to the second problem with the organ.

The organ can barely be heard when standing directly next to it.  My
impression was that the expression shutters were stuck shut and never
opened once.  Many of the patrons of Holland America are senior citizens
and you could see them leaning dangerously out over the staircase
handrails straining to hear the organ play.  One way you could tell
the organ was playing was movement of the automaton characters spaced
around the exterior of the case as decorations.  The band leader waves
his baton, a drum player bangs the drum, a glockenspiel player plays,
and a bell beater plays.  These instruments are exposed so you can hear
them well above the rest of the organ.

The organ is located in an atrium used for seagoing golf putting games,
the front desk, shore excursion booking, and other business activities.
These activities drown out the organ and most of my recording done up
close with a shotgun microphone ended up with intolerable background
commotion.  I was told on the side that the organ had been quieted down
because the Indonesian crew thought it was possessed and it frightened
them.  This does not seem likely but was yet another excuse to keep the
organ from upsetting the money making business section of the ship.

I must admit to not being that concerned over the quality of my
recordings since the tuning on the organ was way past due.  That was
problem number three.  Two of the reeds would really beat badly on one
particular note and gave a resultant reminiscent of the ship's horn.
Many notes were way off and beats that were not string celestes could
be heard through many tunes.

The last problem with the organ was the MIDI control.  The 3.5-inch
magnetic floppy diskettes are beginning to wear out and when the data
stream drops out the organ reacts accordingly.  One wonders why optical
CDs were not burned with all the data instead of being put on the
handful of magnetic diskettes the ship carries.  Magnetic diskette
media only lasts so long before degradation caused by the mechanical
friction of the heads reading the disk leads to disk failure.

All of this leads to the question of who takes care of the organ?
I inquired and found it is the job of the ship's Chief Electrician!
And, that position gets someone new each time his sailing contract is
up.  I inquired about who requests the pipe organ servicing to one of
the ship's staff charged with operating it.  I was told, "Oh there's
no pipes in the there, it's electronic."  They had no idea of what they
had or even that it had problems that needed to be addressed.

When I returned from the cruise I made an attempt to contact Holland
America with my concerns about the sad condition of the organ.  They
have no way to contact them unless you chose from a menu of things like
"Lost Baggage."  So, if you are planning to take the MS Zaandam to hear
the concert Dutch street organ, be prepared for disappointment.  Email
me privately and I will tell you about the food which was also a major
disappointment and was once one of Holland America's finer points.

Oh, and try not to laugh when you see the organ casework.  The rolled
up cardboard tubes for casepipes are not painted on the inside so
looking from the deck above the organ reminds one of a child's school
project.  In other words, the whole thing looks like it was put
together with a glue gun then someone with a spray can went around
several times to hide the glue lines.


A single manual is provided though at no time did any of the ship's
musicians play the instrument.  A flat old style pedalboard was
provided.  However, there were no stops on the organ and the one
control button provided was for turning the keyboard on and off the
MIDI data stream.  How the organ could be played manually was cryptic
at best.

Sadly this follows the modern trend to allow many real instruments to
degrade until they are no longer musical so the general public thinks
of them in a negative way.

Best Wishes to All on the List,
Albert Sefl
PipeOrgn@aol.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]

 [ A beautiful ink & watercolor drawing of the organ installation
 [ is at http://www.mmdigest.com/Pictures/pluer_zaandam.jpg
 [ Holland American Line is a unit of Carnival Corp., the worlds
 [ largest cruise line operator.  Read about the MS Zaandam at
 [ http://www.marinelink.com/Story/Passenger+Vessels+With+Pedigrees-3722.html
 [
 [ -- Robbie