Barrel-Organ Virtuoso

The musical world knows Amsterdam for its topflight Concertgebouw Orchestra; Amsterdammers' own musical affections center more mundanely on their pierementen, the oversized (10-ft.-high), richly painted barrel organs that trundle through the city streets from dawn to sundown. They furnish the common man's music: the oompah of his visions, the clanging of his troubles, the tra-la-la of his frolicking loves. Some notable feature of design or decoration gives them distinctive names: "Big Belly," "Buffalo," "Water Jug," "Rug Beater," "Cement Mixer" (for an oversized grinding wheel).

Since these gaudy monsters make a lot of noise, they are ordinarily subject to strict police regulations. Only 15 may be on the streets at one time, no grinder may play within 300 meters of a colleague, and none may play after dark, or for more than ten minutes in the same spot. But last week the lid was off. For the second time in five years, university students organized a contest and 17 barrel organs were lined up in a big, open square in the heart of the city.

Serious musicians and the president of the Society of Friends of the Concertgebouw were deemed expert enough to judge the power and precision of the grinders, their genius with operatic potpourris, popular marches, sentimental fluff. The judges toured the pierement line in a black-and-yellow carriage, while thousands of Amsterdammers jostled to watch and listen. The first inspection was, for exterior shine; next came a look at the innards. Finally, while the crowds cheered their favorites and mocked at breakdowns, the judges cocked an ear to the music and an eye to grinding technique.

The winner was "The Three Figures," ground by Henk Lurks, son of the 1947 winner. Judges said his tempo was "prima," that he had "the arm of a metronome and the soul of an artist." Most terrible of the experts' judgments on some of the losers: "Too genteel."

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