organ
Organ may refer to:
Biology
* Organ (biology), a part of an organism
Musical instruments
* Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone
** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument
** Hammond ...
manufacturer from
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,
,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
that made
dance organ
A dance organ (french: Orgue de danse) is a mechanical organ designed to be used in a dance hall or ballroom. Originated and popularized in Paris, it is intended for use indoors as dance organs tend to be quieter than the similar fairground organ ...
s and
orchestrion
Orchestrion is a generic name for a machine that plays music and is designed to sound like an orchestra or band. Orchestrions may be operated by means of a large pinned cylinder or by a music roll and less commonly book music. The sound is us ...
s.
History
The company was founded by
Theophile Mortier
Theophilus is a male given name with a range of alternative spellings. Its origin is the Greek word Θεόφιλος from θεός (God) and φιλία (love or affection) can be translated as "Love of God" or "Friend of God", i.e., it is a theoph ...
(1855–1944). Mortier started in 1898 as a vending agent for the Parisian organ builder
Gavioli & Cie Gavioli & Cie were a Franco–Italian organ builder company that manufactured fairground organs in both Italy and later France.
History
Gavioli was founded in 1806 in Cavezzo, Italy, by Giacomo Gavioli (1786–1875). Giacamo's hobby was the deve ...
, in a period when the French and German organ industry was in full bloom. Theophile Mortier was originally the manager of a dance hall, in which there was always a
Gavioli Gavioli & Cie were a Franco– Italian organ builder company that manufactured fairground organs in both Italy and later France.
History
Gavioli was founded in 1806 in Cavezzo, Italy, by Giacomo Gavioli (1786–1875). Giacamo's hobby was the de ...
organ playing. He made it a habit to sell the installed organ after a short while. He was fortunate enough most of the time to make a profit on selling these used organs. As time went by he became more and more an organ dealer and a very good customer of Gavioli. He set up a repair shop in order to provide maintenance and repair for the organs, which he had sold. The organ builder
Guillaume Bax Guillaume may refer to:
People
* Guillaume (given name), the French equivalent of William
* Guillaume (surname)
Other uses
* Guillaume (crater)
See also
* '' Chanson de Guillaume'', an 11th or 12th century poem
* Guillaume affair, a Cold War espi ...
managed this shop. In 1906 Mortier started to build organs himself, as an annex of the Gavioli company.
Due to internal operations difficulties, Gavioli could after a while not deliver enough orders and Mortier began to manufacture the dance organs under his own name. After the First World War the company expanded to a size where they employed 80 personnel and had a capacity to build about 20 large dance organs per year. No other manufacturer has matched the cubic meter volume of organs produced by Mortier. The company stayed active until 1948.
See also
*
Museum Speelklok
Museum Speelklok (previously known as ''Museum van Speelklok tot Pierement'') is a museum in The Netherlands in the city of Utrecht specializing in self-playing musical instruments. Since 1984, it has been housed in the centre of Utrecht in a fo ...
,
Utrecht
Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...
*
National Heritage Museum, Arnhem
The Netherlands Open Air Museum ( nl, Nederlands Openluchtmuseum) is an open-air museum located in Arnhem with antique houses, farms, and factories from different parts of the Netherlands. It is a national museum focusing on the culture associated ...
*
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...