Sweelinck: Master of the Dutch Renaissance

by Jonathan Dimmock

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1.	Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr 04:55	info	buy track
2.	Paduana Lachrymae 05:45	info	buy track
3.	Onder een linde groen 06:01	info	buy track
4.	Fantasia (Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la) 09:38	info	buy track
5.	Mein junges Leben hat ein End' 07:51	info	buy track
6.	Fantasia Chromatica 09:34	info	buy track
7.	Galliarda ex D 05:11	info	buy track
8.	The Woods so Wilde 04:42	info	buy track
9.	Almande & La Reprysse 01:49	info	buy track
10.	Almande & Reprynse Brun Smeedelyn 01:32	info	buy track
11.	Pavane Prymera 02:59	info	buy track
12.	Erbarme dich mein, o Herre Gott 11:44	info	buy track
13.	Ballo del granduca 06:16	info	buy track
14.	Psalm 36: Des boosdoenders wille seer quaet 10:07	info	buy track
15.	Pavana Lachrimae 05:48	info	buy track
16.	Echo Fantasia 04:37	info	buy track
17.	Herzlich lieb hab ich dich, o Herr 09:04	info	buy track
18.	Psalm 23: Mijn Godt voedt mij als mijn Herder ghepresen 03:01	info	buy track
19.	Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gemain 05:28	info	buy track

about

Sweelinck (1562 - 1621) was, without doubt the greatest keyboard player of his day, the first known organ recitalist, the most famous and ingenious improviser of his lifetime, the greatest single influence on the succeeding generation of Northern European composers and performers, and one of the earliest musical entrepreneurs. In an era when organs were banned from worship services in Calvinist Holland, Sweelinck became an employee of the State instead of the Church, playing daily organ concerts (lunch time) at the magnificent organ in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam. These concerts would have been entirely improvised, probably featuring sets of variations on popular secular melodies and religious melodies (Dutch Psalter tunes). It was this music that he would write out later and turn into the printed compositions that we have today. And it is this music, with a few pieces added into the mix by some of his contemporaries (Byrd, Scheidemann), that can be heard on this double disc.

Sweelinck's music can be characterized by two words: "stasis" and "kinesis." Long stretches of slow-moving notes, always gravitating towards a central tonality, start many of his keyboard works. Often during these opening sections, only brief spurts of technical prowess provide a foreshadowing of physical demands that the player will encounter a few pages further in. Time and again, the listener will note a sense of calm and ease at the beginning of a piece, only to find the work concluding with a lengthy display of brilliance, fast scales, thick texture, and what we might describe today as an exhibition of pyrotechnics.

When played on a mean-tone organ, this music has a freshness and clarity that the world would not hear again until the writing of young Mozart. The nature of mean-tone temperament means that certain chords have an agreeable sweetness to their sounds, others a disagreeable character. Sweelinck uses this "sweet and sour" tonality to great advantage. This should be very evident on this recording. All organs, and probably all harpsichords, were tuned in mean-tone temperament during Sweelinck's day. The modern Western ear, accustomed to equal temperament tuning, once thought that unequal temperaments sounded out of tune. But with the advent of globalization, and the ability to hear music of different cultures and exotic instruments, our ears are now more accepting of different tuning systems.

credits

released September 20, 2021

Tracks 1-4 were recorded at the Reformed Church in Oosthuizen, Netherlands, an instrument likely dating to the 15th century

Tracks 5 - 11 were recorded at the Andreaskerk in Hattem, Netherlands, dating from approximately 1550

Tracks 12 - 19 were recorded in the Örgryte Nya Kyrka, Göteborg, Sweden, on the the meantime organ built by Munetaka Yokota in 2000. It is based on the style of Arp Schnitger from approximately 1700.

Enormous thanks to my recording engineer and digital editor: Erik Sikkema, for his incredible expertise and many years of friendship.

Thanks, too, to Frits Elshout, who prepared and tuned the Dutch organs, and to Munetaka Yokota who prepared and tuned the Swedish organ.

The recordings were made in July 2006 and January 2007

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about

Jonathan Dimmock San Francisco, California

Jonathan Dimmock (www.JonathanDimmock.com) is an internationally renowned concert organist. He is the Principal Organist of the Legion of Honor Museum, Organist for the San Francisco Symphony, and Director of Music at Congregation Sherith Israel. He was Organ Scholar of Westminster Abbey. and worked at 3 cathedrals - St. John the Divine (NYC), St. Mark’s (Mpls), and Grace (San Francisco). ... more

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