The Musicians of Ghent

The Low Countries are perhaps some of the most underrated and underappreciated countries in Europe. Within them you can find countless beautiful towns and cities and, despite their flat nature, a vast array of eye-catching natural landscapes.

Of those who do visit, many will go to Amsterdam where they will see little - if any - of the vast cultural wealth the city and surrounding areas possess, instead limiting themselves to the copious bars and coffee shops which the locals themselves seldom attend. Other, slightly more adventurous tourists have perhaps take a cheap flight and spent a weekend in Brussels; a city containing the occasional architectural wonder (the Grand Place, for example) but in general a relatively bland, unexciting place in my experience.

One location many have at least heard of, if not visited, is Bruges - made particularly famous by the movie In Bruges. Bruges is worthy of romanticised reputation; it is a fairytale like city in which one feels to have traveled back in time with the architecture so untouched for so many centuries. Indeed, the entire city centre of Bruges is a UNESCO world heritage site, such is its untouched history and beauty.

Whilst I certainly recommend Bruges, just 30 minutes away by train is in my opinion an even better - and less corrupted by tourism - city. If one travels between Ghent and Bruges the similarities are stark, Ghent for me almost felt like the big brother of its neighbour, with everything a little bigger and more spacious.

Like Bruges, Ghent is a city overflowing with architectural beauty and cultural fascination; both cities one can simply walk around aimlessly for hours and never get bored (or stop taking photos). Indeed, proof of how much I enjoy this city is the fact that it is one of very few places I have already visited on more than one occasion.

One of many wonderful spots in Ghent can be found along the canal running through the city center, where in the summer months one can find both sides overflowing with people drinking Belgian beers (it is legal to drink in public spaces in Belgium), and listening to music. It was on my first trip to Ghent, and on my final day, that having spent the afternoon drinking beers by the canal I decided to go for one final stroll around the city.

In the previous days I had noticed that there had been many pianos scattered throughout the city centre, free to be used by anyone who felt the inclination. Whilst it is not uncommon to occasionally find free-to-use pianos in a train station of shopping centre, the quantity dotted around Ghent was intriguing.

Whilst walking I came across a structure I had seen many times, a giant, wall-less canopy with a perculiar shaped roof. I had been told on a walking tour that it had been built especially for its acoustic qualities and often in the summer plays and live music would take place there.

Unsurprisingly, one of the pianos had been placed here then. On all of the previous times I had passed by this particular piano it had stood there idle and untouched; yet on this occasion it was surrounded by a large group of people, perhaps 20 or 30 in number. The atmosphere from a distance was contagiously merry and I approached to take a closer look.

With one person playing the piano, the rest of the people clustered around and sang along to whatever tune took the performers fancy. When he was finished, immediately there was someone ready to step in and take their place to maintain a near constant stream of cheerful, upbeat music. I stayed for perhaps three hours in the end and not once in that time was there any significant gap in the music.

I struck up a conversation with a young guy of a similar age to myself who had moments before played and sung a fantastic rendition of ‘Hit the Road Jack’. I asked him what exactly was going on, if this was maybe an organised event for students or something similar?

He explained to me that they were all local musicians (or simply people with a passion for music) who until a few weeks ago had never met before. They had all been taking advantage of the pianos located throughout the city and gradually one-by-one a network had formed. Meeting at these pianos they had individually built up friendships based on their common passion and now they had arranged for everyone to congregate at this one particular, acoustically excellent piano to ‘jam’.

It was truly remarkable, based on the atmosphere and friendliness of the group I would have guessed they were long-established friends. As the night progressed, more and more people joined; some talented musicians who joined the stream of performers, others simple bystanders like myself. Through a shared passion for music they were able to come together and almost instantly create a powerfully positive and contagious atmosphere, one in which a stranger like me could simply walk over and spend hours drinking it all in.

Posted: 26/04/2021

Written by: Tom Taylor (@tomtayloor)