Not a wind-up: Oldest Wilhelmus recording found in museum attic

A phonograph cylinder believed to contain the oldest surviving recording of the Dutch national anthem has been found during a clearing-up exercise at the national gramophone museum.

The chance discovery came to light when volunteers from the museum in Nieuwleusen, Overijssel, took a box of old phonograph recordings to a local old people’s home to demonstrate the devices.

But the significance of the find was only realised when Rinus Blijleven, an expert on historic recording equipment, heard it on a visit to the museum.

He was able to identify it as a recording of the Wilhelmus by the Dutch royal military band made in 1905.

“I was on a tour of the museum and at some point they let us listen to a recording a phonograph. It gave me a shock and my heart started beating faster,” he told RTV Oost.

“Dutch phonograph recordings are unusual in themselves, but especially ones by the Royal Military Band. It is a rare recording that I’d never heard before. It’s remarkable that it’s been preserved.”

Museum volunteer Klaas Kreule said the box of recordings had been stored in the attic when the gramophone museum moved to its current location in 2023.

“This cylinder had probably been in our store room for decades without our realising how special it was,” he said.

Few early recordings of the Wilhelmus survive because the song only became the official anthem of the Netherlands in 1932. The phonograph in Nieuwleusen is also unusual because the opening couplet takes the form of a tuba solo.

The museum has made a digital copy of the recording to include in a temporary exhibition. The phonograph itself was played once last week at the museum, but the digital version will be used in future to prevent the fragile antique machine being damaged.