Keukenhof‘s street organ, The Adriaen, was built in 1978 from the remnants of a 1920 Belgium dancehall organ and has been at Keukenhof since 1990. The organ was built by Henk van den Heuvel whom (I believe) founded J.L van den Heuvel Orgelbouw, a company focused on building and restoring organs of all sizes.
Some of the mechanics are visible when standing behind the organ. I envisioned – incorrectly – that the music generated is via player-piano rolls; in fact, the street organ uses books of perforated cards. The cards are connected together, similar to continuous form paper for dot matrix printers. The cards are pulled through the organ to generate the music and then stack themselves afterwards. Very cool.
The music played spans the gamut, from traditional Dutch music to classical to Taylor Swift, played in an oom-pah style (though without legitimate brass). Stacked around and inside the organ were dozens of boxes containing perforated books: Miley Cyrus, Hello Dolly soundtrack, Boney M, Estudiantina Waltz, and much more.
As one box completes, the operator positions the next box and seamlessly threads it in without any noticeable gap in the music. Impressively smooth, though years of experience probably helps.
Image Credits
- Images and movie © 2026 Scott C Sosna, all rights reserved.
