The Bamboo organ in Roeselare

€ 45,-

There was a rumour that a small business in Jakarta, Indonesia, namely the firm P.T. Prajawidya Instrumentalia built harpsichords and organs. This small enterprise was founded in 1991 by Rev. Harry van Dop and Mr. Henk Vonk. 'Widya' means 'knowledge' as well as 'can make.' 'Praja' refers to a work place. The founders made it their goal to serve current and future musical needs in Indonesia by constructing instruments using indigenous materials. As such, it represents a continuation of an Indonesian cultural tradition where crafts using materials from nature have a centuries long history of delivering quality musical instruments.

"Bamboo is the material from which the pipes are made. The most suitable is found in the area around Bogor, a little higher up on the hills. It has to be thin walled which makes it somewhat difficult to find. When the bamboo canes arrive, they are still green and need to dry undisturbed for several months. Initially, full sunlight has to be avoided since this creates stresses which quickly causes the bamboo to split. With the large, wide bamboo, the diaphragms (the partitions between segments) need to be removed. In Indonesia, bamboo is used not only for musical instruments but is suited to a thousand and one uses, e.g. in the construction industry.

Djati teakwood, which is particularly durable, is used for the case. We purchase the wood in log form and then cut it into planks. The planks then spend 1.5 to 2 weeks in a drying oven until the water content is reduced to 8 or 9%. For certain critical parts we use Sunkai, a light wood with long fibres.

For the key coverings on the keyboards we use ebony. It is a hard wood and a special saw blade is needed for cutting it. In Indonesia this wood is known as 'Kayu Besi' or black wood. When it is polished it has a nice grain.

Once the organ is completed and the bellows provide sufficient wind at a pressure of 70 to 80 mm water column, the important work of voicing begins. In an organ with bamboo pipes only, the variety of tone colours is of necessity less than in an organ with pipes of wood and tin. The sound is very natural and the reason bamboo is often used in tropical lands for making musical instruments."

Wind pressure: 75 mm
Tuning: a' = 440 Hz.
Temperament: Equal.
Pedals: 30 keys.
The 3rd manual has no stops. It is only the coupler of man.1 to man.2
Coupler manual 1 + Ped.
Coupler manual 2 + Ped.
Coupler manual 1 + 2. (Added in Hauptwerk for use with a console with 2 manuals and pedals.)

Download files: Once we receive your payment, you will gain access to the download files via email.

Important : Before download, first read the comments below at 'General'.

Before download and install, note the following:
1. Download all .CompPkg.Hauptwerk files.
2. Leave these files in the same folder and
3. Do not change the file names and
4. Do not unpack by hand.
5. Check the MD5 checksums with the WinMD5 program, free to download from
http://www.winmd5.com or http://www.fastsum.com
If a checksum is incorrect, discard the wrong download file from the PC and download that file again.
6. Start Hauptwerk (File/Install organ....), select in the folder where you just downloaded the files,
the file with extension .CompPkg_Hauptwerk_rar in Hauptwerk's 'component installer'.
Hauptwerk automatically finds the other files.
7. If you get error messages, scroll to the end of the log file (this opens automatically if something goes wrong when unpacking) to see what goes wrong.
Usually a file is missing, or there is a file in the wrong folder or a file is damaged.
8. Before loading the sampleset, check the system information regarding the expected memory usage etc.

Note: Please contact us via the Contact form if you encounter any issues; we will try to assist you.