L'Orgue Du Chat Noir D'Alost

L'orgue Du Chat Noir D'Alost (Organ of The Black Cat of Aalst) is an Orchestrion - Dance organ built by the firm Mortier from Antwerpen around 1920. (see also Mortierorgel) This organ with 84 keys was built for a café named L'alliance, Kerkstraat 1 in Aalst - Belgium. Later the name of the café changed in 'De Zwarte Kat'. (dutch for 'The Black Cat'. In French 'Le Chat Noir'). In juli 1968 the organ was bought by Daniël Dagraed for his National Museum for Mechanical Organs in Koksijde, in a rather ruined state. Mr. Victor Hooghuys, descendant of the well known organbuilders Hooghuys from Geraardsbergen, restaurated it completely. When Daniël Dagraed died and the museum closed his doors the organ was gone and untraceable for a long time. In 2021 the organ was found in Japan in the private quarters of a Japanese restaurateur. A dance organ is a mechanical organ designed to be used in a dance hall or ballroom. Being intended for use indoors, dance organs tend to be quieter than the similar fairground organ.Orchestrion is a generic name for a machine that plays music and is designed to sound like an orchestra or band. Orchestrions may be operated by means of a large pinned cylinder or by a music roll and less commonly book music. The sound is usually produced by pipes, though they will be voiced differently from those found in a pipe organ, as well as percussion instruments. Mortier was an organ manufacturer from Antwerp, Belgium that made dance organs and orchestrions. Hooghuys was an organ manufacturer from Geraardsbergen, Belgium who also made organs.