Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621)
The Orpheus of Amsterdam
Contents listed after review
The Royal Wind Music
rec. 2023, Doopsgezinde Kerk, Haarlem, Netherlands
Reviewed as a download
Pan Classics PC10462 [60]
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck is reckoned to be among the great composers of keyboard music. He played a key role in the development of several keyboard genres, especially in his teaching of many German organists.
He was organist of the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam for much of his life. He was not in the service of the church as the organ was not used during Sunday services. Sweelinck’s employer was the city council which expected him to play during weekdays when the church was open. It was in fact a kind of market place where people met and did business. Sweelinck had to play variations on the tunes of the Genevan psalter. This way, visitors could become acquainted with these relatively new melodies which were sung during Sunday services. Whether Sweelinck also played variations on secular tunes is hard to say. It is possible, but he certainly will have played them on the harpsichord at home, attended by members of the upper echelons of society.
The present disc offers a survey of his oeuvre, and approaches it from a different angle: his music, written for keyboard or for voices, is performed by a large consort of recorders, going from sopranino in G to sub-contrabass in B flat. Each genre in his oeuvre is represented. The programme is extended with two contemporary pieces, which reflect on his oeuvre.
Obviously, variations have an important place in the programme, as it is the genre for which he was particularly famous. Pastor Willem Baudartius, one of his close friends, reported from a visit, during which Sweelinck entertained the company with endless series of variations. When he was in a really good mood, he could not stop and took one popular melody after the other. In this part of his output he was strongly influenced by the English virginalists. Malle Sijmen was known as Mal Sims in England, and Onder een linde groen as All in a garden green. He not only used English melodies for variations. The Ballo del Granduca is based on the dance O che nuovo miracolo from the Intermedi which were performed in 1589 at the occasion of the wedding of Ferdinando I de’ Medici to Christina of Lorraine.
An important part of Sweelinck’s keyboard oeuvre consists of fantasias. They are built on a single theme and are usually fugal, divided into several sections which are separated by short passages in free style. Two fantasias of a particular kind are included here. The first is the ‘Echo’ fantasia, where Sweelinck makes use of a device that was very popular from the late 16th century onwards, for instance in theatrical works. A late example is the aria ‘Flößt mein Heiland’ in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. The other is the Fantasia crommatica, which is based on a chromatic descending motif. Chromaticism was another device that was frequently used by composers, both as part of experiments with temperature and for expressive reasons.
Playing keyboard music on melody instruments was common practice in the Renaissance, and so was instrumental performance of vocal music. Here we get specimens from three genres of vocal music which appear in Sweelinck’s oeuvre. The motets, which he published in 1619 in Antwerp, are the best-known part of his vocal output. Although they include a basso continuo part, this was probably not intended by Sweelinck, but added by the publisher. It had the character of a basso seguente which largely follows the vocal bass line. The fact that the basso continuo part was probably not by Sweelinck is in line with the character of these motets which are in the style of the stile antico. That makes Sweelinck one of the last representatives of the famous Franco-Flemish school, which for a few centuries had dominated the music scene in Europe.
Sweelinck was not only the organist of the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam and a famous organ teacher, he was also the director of the local Collegium Musicum which comprised eight people, merchants and wealthy citizens who supported Sweelinck and who were the dedicatees of his second book of Psalms. They were without any doubt also the first performers of Sweelinck’s psalm settings. It seems likely that the composer first tested the waters in his Collegium Musicum before publishing his psalm settings. Sweelinck covered the complete Book of Psalms, but did not set the Latin texts of the Vulgate, but rather the rhymed versions of the Genevan Psalter, which had been completed in 1562. The texts were written by Clément Marot and Theodore de Bèze, the melodies were provided by Guillaume Franc, Louis Bourgeois and ‘Maître Pierre’ (Pierre Davantès). Although several poets made versions of these texts in Dutch, Sweelinck preferred the original French texts. French was the language of the upper echelons of society, and although the four books with Psalms were published in Amsterdam, they may have been intended for the international market as well, and that made settings in Dutch unsuitable.
Probably the least-known part of Sweelinck’s oeuvre are his secular vocal works. He composed French chansons, Italian madrigals and so-called rimes; the latter were published in 1612. They are scored for two or three voices, which was rather old-fashioned: such scorings were common before 1500. It is possible that these pieces had a pedagogical purpose, maybe for the singers of the Collegium Musicum. The collection comprises twelve French and fifteen Italian pieces. We get here only two specimens from the former category, one of which only with its first section.
The last category in this recording are two pieces of our own time. Aspasia Nasopoulou was commissioned by Dutch radio to write Dans voor Orpheus van Amsterdam (Dance for Orpheus of Amsterdam – Sweelinck’s nickname) at the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the composer’s death. It is scored for four recorders and voice; Irene Sorozábal Moreno sings the soprano part and plays one of the instrumental parts on the tenor recorder. The Latin text is from the pen of a friend of Sweelinck, Cornelis Plemp. The other piece is in fact not a composition. Hester Groenleer, in her liner-notes, writes: “[The] improvisation Kettingreactie (Chain Reaction) is a game in which the players inspire, imitate, react to and contradict each other in a sound world with contemporary recorder techniques. The end of the improvisation is loosely based on the theme of Mein junges Leben hat ein End, one of Sweelinck’s most popular works.”
The recorder consort was very common in Sweelinck’s time, but it is unlikely that he or his contemporaries ever heard eleven recorders. We have to do here with arrangements, all created by Hester Groenleer. The players also add diminutions. Not all the pieces are played by the full ensemble. The Echo fantasia is performed with four recorders, undoubtedly to keep the polyphonic fabric as transparent as possible. The two rimes are performed with one instrument per part, and that may have been motivated by the fact that these pieces were intended for performance by solo voices. The motet Ab Oriente venerunt magi is performed by the full ensemble; it is indeed possible that the vocal version was performed with more than one voice per part. In the case of Pseaume 77 a performance with one instrument per part may have been preferable as this was also the way the psalms were sung by the Collegium Musicum.
The Royal Wind Music has showed in previous recordings to be a very fine ensemble. In 2024 I very much enjoyed a concert at the Utrecht Festival Early Music. Here, they are again in excellent form. It is astonishing how well the instruments blend, and how good the intonation is. The members show considerable virtuosity, and especially the playing of the lowest instruments, large in size, is impressive. Sometimes one can hear the noise of their keys, which is not unlike the noise the keys of some historical organs produce – and that may sound very familiar to lovers of Sweelinck’s organ music. They will be interested in this disc, which offers a different perspective on his oeuvre. Obviously, for recorder aficionados this disc is a must-have; I challenge those who prefer to avoid the recorder to investigate it, as there is a good chance that they may change their mind.
Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen
Buying this recording via a link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
Contents:
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Ballo del Granduca (SwWV 319)
Ab oriente venerunt magi (SwWV 153)
Aspasia Nasopoulou (*1972)
Dans voor Orpheus van Amsterdam [Dance for Orpheus of Amsterdam]
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Yeux, qui guidez mon âme (SwWV 231)
Fantasia G3 (Fuga 7. toni) (SwWV 268)
Onder een linde groen (SwWV 325)
Hester Groenleer (*1980)
Kettingreactie [Chain Reaction] (group improvisation)
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Marchans qui traversez tout le rivage More (SwWV 224) (Première partie)
Fantasia a 3 ‘Echo’ (SwWV 275)
Malle Sijmen (SwWV 323)
Pseaume 77: A Dieu ma voix j’ay haussee (SwWV 77)
Fantasia d1 ‘Crommatica’ (SwWV 258)
[bonus track]
Jacob van Eyck (1590-1657)
Onder de linde groene
