Most cheerful museum in the Netherlands (National Museum From Musical Clock to Street Organ (Utrecht, Netherlands))

Member Name: nickn5

Product:	National Museum From Musical Clock to Street Organ (Utrecht, Netherlands)
Date:	24/08/09 (76 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great for children, educational, entertaining

Disadvantages: Hard to find

The 'Museum van Speelklok tot Pierement' (Museum From Musical Clock to Street Organ) in Utrecht is one of those well-hidden gems of a tourist attraction that no-one ever seems to have heard of, unless they happen to be mechanical music / vintage rally enthusiasts.

The name, even translated, might not mean a great deal to a UK audience, and the location, in Utrecht, means it is off the over-beaten track worn between Great Britain and Amsterdam. But if you do venture a little further east from Amsterdam, you might be in for a pleasant surprise.

Utrecht itself is a very historic Dutch city with plenty to interest tourists, including a network of canal rings, a 'divided' cathedral and bell tower, many quaint and independent shops and much more. But this review is about the Mechanical Music Museum, so without further ado, I shall let you in further on this well-kept secret.

#~~~ WHAT'S IN THE MUSEUM? ~~~#

The museum is a converted church right in the heart of Utrecht, between the central railway station and the cathedral or 'Dom Kerk'. It describes itself as the 'most cheerful museum in the Netherlands' and, well, I can certainly vouch for the fact that it's plenty of fun.

The museum consists of a collection of clocks and musical instruments with a difference, the difference being that they are all capable of playing themselves, or of producing music without a player. The clocks, of which there is a large collection, vary from those which play a simple melody on metal chimes to those which can play a full-blown tune using organ pipes and pressurised air.

There is (on my most recent visit newly installed) a full size carillion where you can see the mechanism and exactly how it works - a carillion being the instrument that plays tunes on bells usually at the top of a church tower.

In other parts of the museum, they have rooms packed full of much larger mechanical musical instruments, such as self-playing pianos or pianolas, orchestrions (which are generally pianos plus drums or a xylophone), small barrel organs, large street organs, of the type once found playing on the streets of Amsterdam and Utrecht, and even bigger dance organs which were once popular in dance halls and cafes.

#~~~ MUSEUM SHOP, CAFE AND KIDS AREA ~~~#

The museum has a sizeable shop where you can buy souvenirs of the visit, some very expensive indeed, such as real musical boxes, and there's also a small cafe serving basic drinks and snacks. While you enjoy your cafe drinks you can enjoy listening to a few of the museum's organs and pianos playing away, by inserting a small amount of money into the instrument.

There's also a very thoughtful and handy play area (room) for children to enjoy themselves and learn in a basic way about how organ pipes and bells work - a nice touch I thought.

#~~~ THE TOUR - MY EXPERIENCE ~~~#

The first thing to note when you buy your admission tickets is that the museum very helpfully have lockers - I put my large rucksack into one of them, which helped me relax and enjoy the tour much more. They are very relaxed about cameras, there is no problem taking photos or videoing (as I did) while on the tour - in fact several of my videos can be found on YouTube!

You are given a time when you must be at the meeting point for the next tour by the helpful desk staff (who are also good at speaking English), and then the tour begins. The tour guide very helpfully asked whether anyone in the group would like the tour also in English, as they obviously get quite a few 'foreigners' attending. Tour sizes vary but on all my visits they have not exceeded about 20 or so.

#~~~ CARILLION ~~~#

The first part of the tour showed us the fully working large carillion - this was new on my most recent visit and a nice surprise. But a warning - this instrument is VERY loud up close. The mechanism is a amazingly Heath-Robinson looking medley of cogs, wires, levers and what-not, but it all seems to work.

#~~~ CLOCKS ~~~#

After that we were taken into the first room, full of clocks of all imaginable sizes and shapes. Many of these must be worth an absolute fortune as they have been excellently preserved and looked after. The tour guide (and I expect they are all trained similarly) was very aware of young children and made sure they got a good view of the demonstrations, which involved setting one or two of the clocks playing their tunes.

Another nice surprise was the production of what seemed to be an odd looking little hat, which the guide set 'going' by winding it up, and out popped a fluffy rabbit, who looked around and then disappeared again. An ingenious little mechanical toy which captivated the younger ones there.

#~~~ PIANOS AND ORGANS ~~~#

The second room is where things get more interesting, with a display of much larger instruments like pianos and orchestrions and smaller cafe organs, some of which actually produce half-decent melodic sounds. Because the tours are kept to no more than about 45 minutes, it is impossible to hear every instrument played.

However, in an illustration of how friendly and helpful the staff can be, when I finished my tour and asked a manager there if it would be possible to hear a certain instrument play, my wish was their command and they couldn't have been more helpful.

One very fascinating instrument was the Hupfeld Phonolist Violina, which is a marvellous contraption that plays three violins either separately or simultaneously along with a piano, all worked from a paper roll with holes in to control it.

For the children, one or two of them got to 'have a go' at winding the handle on a small organ to produce a tune, much to their delight and their parent's amazement. This is the sort of thing that makes this museum 'the most cheerful' and very unlike others.

#~~~ THE MONSTER DANCE ORGANS ~~~#

In the last two rooms, there were some large and then some monster sized organs, some used on the streets in the Netherlands, and others used for dancing in large dance halls and cafes across Holland and Belgium. The smaller of these street organs can be wound by hand (the winding action producing pressurised air which plays the organ pipes) but many of them have now been fitted with small motors to save the organ owner's arms!

The most impressive in size is a floor-to-ceiling ornately decorated 101-key Mortier organ, which uses cardboard books with punched holes across a 'reader mechanism' to produce some lovely tunes, just right for dancing to. Adjacent in the same room was a smaller but incredibly loud Carl Frei organ, which made a few on the tour jump when it started playing.

#~~~ AFTERWARDS ~~~#

After the tour, it is possible to go around again for no extra charge (as
the tours run every hour and sometimes every half hour), or, as mentioned previously, you can use some Euro cents to play some of the instruments found in the cafe area to entertain yourself. In yet another example of the friendliness there, during all my visits the cafe staff have been only too happy to set any of the 'paid for' instruments going if you request it and have run out of money!

Browsing the shop is an interesting experience, the souvenirs ranging from the usual mundane postcards and small knick-knacks to some mind-bogglingly expensive fully working music boxes for several hundred or thousand Euros. You can buy one or two CDs from a selection of some of the museum's organs and instruments.

#~~~ GETTING THERE ~~~#

Assuming you'll arrive at Utrecht by train (parking by car in Utrecht is a nightmare), the easiest way to reach the museum is by walking; it takes about 10 minutes at a reasonable walking speed. You go from Utrecht Centraal station through the Hoog Catharijne shopping centre, turn right onto the Catharijne Singel, then left onto the Mariaplaats street, left again onto Mariastraat, then right onto Steenweg which is the street with the museum.

The entrance is actually not very easy to spot, and I ended up asking one or two locals where to find the museum, easy enough as most people have a small and basic knowledge of English! Closest Anglicised phonetic pronunciation of the museum would be 'moosayum fon spaylklok tot peerermunt'.

#~~~ PRICE ~~~#

At the time of writing, the admission price for an adult is 8 Euros and for children 4-12 is 4 Euros 50 cents, under that age they are free. I would say for what you get that is a very good price, and great value for money.

Summary: Go to Utrecht and see this wonderful museum