On view March 3, 2011
Located in the: Special Exhibition Galleries
Look at, explore within and listen to different aspects of Dutch culture. Although some may have changed, others have remained the same for hundreds of years.
The 51 bells of the Westerkerk can be heard all over the west end of Amsterdam. They chime every quarter hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also hear them during museum hours at the Peabody Essex Museum in the exhibition “Golden: Dutch and Flemish Masterworks for the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection.”
On Tuesdays at noon, Boudewijn Zwart, city carillonneur for Amsterdam, climbs the 255 steps to the top of the Westeroren (West Tower) to play music on the carillon, a piano-like instrument connected to the Westerkerk’s many bells. In this excerpt, Zwart plays “Baletto del Granduca,” a piece by 17th-century Dutch composer Jan Pieterszn Sweelinck. Listen to the full performance and several others on PEM's YouTube channel. Click on the YouTube link at the bottom of this page.
