"I love to hear singing to a
street organ," said Raskolnikov, and his manner seemed strangely out of keeping with the subject--"I like it on cold, dark, damp autumn evenings--they must be damp--when all the passers-by have pale green, sickly faces, or better still when wet snow is falling straight down, when there's no wind--you know what I mean?--and the street lamps shine through it .
Unfortunately, the composition I was executing at the moment (I am one of the loudest of living whistlers) was by Verdi--" La Donna e Mobile"--familiar, no doubt, to his lordship on the
street organs. He recognized the tune, poor man, and when I took off my hat to him he looked the other way.
It was fascinating and a treat to conclude with Kathleen playing her
street organ. Ladies joined in singing to the old fashioned music.
The brave travellers also sample some Dutch gin known as jenever, and visit the city's
street organ museum.
The Band of the Corps of Royal Mechanical and Electrical Engineers (REME) will perform in the morning, with the North Skelton Brass Band providing the afternoon's musical entertainment, and a
street organ will also be in attendance.
Mr Wright recently acquired a Dutch
street organ used to entertain passers-by on the streets of Amsterdam.
Daughter Rebecca, 18, who took on the mantle of youngest funeral director when she joined the business from school two years ago, said: "He's wanted a
street organ like this since he was a kid and now he's got me roped in.
- Johanna Van Der Heyden, host of the Violanta
Street Organ.
Two other notable mentions are the curiously-named but interesting National Museum From Musical Clock to
Street Organ, and the Museum voor het Kruideniersbedrijf, which roughly translates as a museum of grocery business.
The Memorial
Street Organ Festival, in honour of Taffy the Clown who died last October, will be at Roath Park on Saturday from 10am to 5pm.
The mechanically and musicallyminded, and those with a sense of fun, are sure to enjoy a visit to the nearby National Museum From Musical Clock To
Street Organ.
Away from the bells, dip into the appropriately - if long winded - named National Museum from Musical Clock to
Street Organ.
street organ - a musical instrument that makes music by rotation of a cylinder studded with pegs