Le Grand Orchestrion Hooghuys Du Manege Becquart

The most famous Hooghuys organ ever: the 70-key fair organ of the Becquart family, which became popular thanks to several recordings by Decca. The serial number of this organ is unknown to me. The organ is now owned by François Kopp (F). There were several 70-key organs with a nearly identical façade. The recordings of this organ are made when the organ was in the possession of Albert Becquart rank among the best ever made in general and by the Decca Record Company in particular. For these recordings, the organ was brought to the Decca/Fonior-studio in Brussels in 1954, where most of the repertoire arranged by August Schollaert was recorded (a letter of this arranger, containing a list of tunes recorded by Decca that haven't been released on records, is still in possession of Mr.Jan L.M. van Dinteren at Geleen (NL)); so all tunes listed below were arranged by August Schollaert. The first recordings brought onto the market were 78rpm-records, of which some contain small medleys which are actually a selection from larger ones (as appears from books still in the collection of the Rorive family). On some of the recordings, a bassdrum- and woodblock-player can be heard, probably to add some dynamics and more rhythm. There were eight of these records.