In the past year I shed some light on the theatre organs made by the Standaart company. Standaart was the largest manufacturer of theatre organs on the Dutch market and probably built fifty to sixty instruments in the Netherlands alone. Today just a handful of these are left. A fine example of an original Standaart organ is installed in the Fortis Theater aan de Schie in Schiedam, and in Boskoop the NOF/VARA organ will soon be installed.

Of course we musn’t forget the large Standaart/Compton concert organ from the former AVRO studio which is currently in storage, waiting for a new location to be found. This organ was Standaart’s largest creation in the theatre organ genre: 4 manuals, 18 ranks and originally the fourth manual was coupled to another 7 church organ ranks. On account of Standaart’s bankruptcy during the installation the organ was finished in 1936 by Compton. Hence the Compton label on the console and not Standaart, although a large part of the instrument is by Standaart.

Continuation...

At the request of Pierre Palla, a Koppelfluit was placed at the expense of the Saxophone (which has unfortunately disappeared). In the Accompaniment chamber a Jazz Trumpet was added on the advice of Cor Steyn. In the 1950’s Fonteijn brightened the voicing of the instrument and the connection to the church organ was also dispensed with. High and low pressure pipework do not really go well together!

With this AVRO organ, an end came to the developments at Standaart, as unfavourable exchange rates against the British pound meant that huge losses were made on organs supplied to England and the business was no longer viable. Bankruptcy was applied for. After that, a new company by the name of Standaart was set up but was geared predominantly towards tuning, maintaining and relocating existing organs.

Continuation AVRO-organ (see part 5)

The situation sounds strangely familiar.........
In the second (and final) specification design only the three softest stops of the Trocadero are missing: the Unda Maris, Quintadena and Dulciana. This gave the AVRO a total of 18 theatre organ ranks. However, there was also a connection to a few stops from the church organ and so the instrument would in fact be larger than the Trocadero organ. It was clear that Standaart wanted to create a top-class instrument, a new masterpiece. Most of the reeds were ordered from Gottfried but this is where Standaart probably slipped up. In the larger Wurlitzer instruments there was an “English Post Horn”, a stop usually simply referred to as “English Horn”, both in the specification and on the stop tabs. However, for Gottfried an “English Horn” was not the same as an “English Post Horn” at all. Standaart must have ordered an “English Horn” from Gottfried (as it stood in the Wurlitzer stop list) and so Gottfried supplied a real English Horn and not an English Post Horn! 

VARA and Schiedam
In 1932-1933 Standaart produced two organs of practically identical size, namely the second VARA organ and the organ for the Passage theatre in Schiedam.
Both instruments had three manuals and initially ten ranks, now completely unified! At last optimal use of the pipework was being made!
Shortly after the inauguration of the VARA organ, a Tuba Horn was added, thus bringing the number of ranks to eleven.
The organ of the Passage theatre in Schiedam was moved a number of years ago by the NOF to the new Theater aan de Schie, and was also enlarged with an eleventh rank, a Trumpet. This came from the Standaart organ formerly in the Luxor Palast theatre.
On examining the specifications it becomes apparent that both organs bear a marked similarity to the organs in the Wurlitzer catalogue. This can be explained by the fact that Standaart had approached Reginald Foort for advice, and the famous organist was very well acquainted with the Wurlitzer organs in England — a brand for which he had a strong preference.