Music is the decorative theme of Zandaam.  The walls are lined with musical memorabilia, an eclectic Hard Rock Café.  Like Hard Rock there are guitars autographed by rock stars like Iggy Pop and Freddy Mercury, and others with illegible signatures. 

There is supposed to be a saxophone autographed by Bill Clinton.  I found it but in the ship’s refit it was mounted signature toward the wall so I can only take it in good faith that Bill really signed it. 

There are other instruments on the walls include two early twentieth century Italian made instruments I had not heard of.  A brass sarrusophone was actually invented in France (named after French bandmaster named Pierre-Agustus Sauues) and double reeded baritone rothphone which Wikipedia tells me is like the sarrusophone, in fact it was sometimes called the saxsarrusophone.  It sounds like something Dr. Seuss would invent.  It was invented by Fredrich Roth, whose phone did not become as famous as Adolph Sax’s phone.  (For his efforts Sax got his picture on the pre-euro 200 Belgian Franc note.)  These instruments were built for the Italian army as acoustically amplified oboes and bassoons for marching bands but never caught on outside Italy.  As far as I can tell neither has been autographed by Bill Clinton.  Wikipedia helpfully reminds me that the sarrusophone is not to be confused with the Sousaphone.  I found no Sousaphones on the walls of Zaandam.

There is a beautiful harpsicord that looks old but was built in 1973.  The little lamps on the tables in the theater are plastic encased miniature brass instruments. 

In the Explorations Café, among the game tables, is an inlayed musical table that I see every day.

There is a statue of Puccini along with a handwritten page from his 1910 opera La Fanciulla del West.” Based on the book “The Girl of the Golden West” by American David Belasco.  Puccini had just come off a massive hit “Madame Butterfly” also based on a novel by Belasco and decided on another try.  It premiered at the New York Met but Golden West did not fare as well at the box office as Butterfly and met with a critical “meh.”  Apparently, no showstoppers.  However, the orchestration received praise and the opera has never left the repertoire.

The instrument that is the centerpiece of Zaandam is a three story high baroque pipe organ (485 pipes) built by Elbert Pluer that fills the ship’s atrium.  It is based on a Dutch street organ on steroids.  It used to play (automatically, or with a keyboard) but the organ has not played since the ship came back from its pandemic hiatus.   

Three of my favorite pieces of musically related art are in the aft elevator lobbies on the bottom three decks.  They are paintings of Roma musicians by Igor Fomin. These are not areas of the ship I normally frequent but I sometimes take a detour to enjoy these paintings.  

In a later post I will talk about the music played on Zaandam.