75 years of the Fokker organ!

The legendary Fokker organ is 75 years old. This milestone will be celebrated with an anniversary concert, highlighting the history and repertoire of the 31-tone organ. With works from Henk Badings and Anton de Beer for the archiphone – the first version of the 31-tone organ – to new work by Fabio Costa and Ere Lievonen, the Fokker organ’s present organist. The compositions with violin add extra colour to the organ.

As early as 1691, Christiaan Huygens described a tonal system in which the octave is divided into 31 tones instead of the usual twelve. Based on his theory, the physicist Adriaan Fokker designed the 31-tone organ, which he had built by the Pels company. For decades, this organ stood in the auditorium of the Teylers Museum in Haarlem. Since 2008, the organ has been housed in the Kleine Zaal of the Muziekgebouw, where it enjoys a rich second life with many new works and many concerts.