Ochrona zabytkowych organów w Holandii

The organizational structure of the protection of historical monuments in Holland is described, to depict against this background the protection o f organs ranking among historical monuments. Their protection makes the concern of the Ministry of Culture, Leisure and Social Welfare. Responsibility for the whole of the problems involved is borne by the Specialist in the Problems of Historical Organs at the State Office for Historical Monuments, in Zeist. His tasks consist in drawing up the files and documentation of the said organs, in cooperation with specialists and institutions of various kind. The documentation concerning the organs is collected by, and kept at, the State Office for the Protection of Historical Monuments inclusive of architectural documentation. The one pertaining to antique organs is based on the wealth of archival records, simply incomparable with the modest information on the subject, available in Poland. A particularly large number of those records have been collected by the Institute of Musicology, University o f Utrecht. The conservation of antique organs is carried on in Holland by private firms under the supervision of specialists appointed by the conservation authorities. The said firms are mainly engaged in construction of new organs designed on the basis of the wealthy Dutch tradition. What is worth stressing is the close cooperation of those firms with experts on antique organs. It was the Dutch organ-building masters, especially the Flentrop company, that were the co-initiators of the return to the classical organ-building tradition. What is particularly observed in conservation of antique organs is preserving the original parts of the instruments concerned. If this impossible for technical reasons, they are substituted with new parts, the original ones being preserved in the recesses of the organ body. The Dutch have the greatest attainments to their credit in the research on, and restoring of, the sound of the organ. The Polish antique organs are not very well known in West-European countries hence the need for more frequent contact and exchange of information between specialists in this sphere. The author has had the opportunity of studying the problem of the protection of antique organs due to a fellowship granted him by the Dutch Ministry of Education and Science. He is greatly indebted to Doctor M.A. Vente, Director of the Institute of Musicology, University of Utrecht and Mr. O.B. Wiersam, Expert on the Problems of Antique Organs, State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments, Zeist, for the aid in organizing his stay in Holland and all their kind interest and assistance.