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Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (/ˈjɑːn ˈpiːtərsoʊn ˈsweɪlɪŋk/ YAHN


PEE-tər-sohn SWAY-link;[1] April or May, 1562 – 16 October 1621)
was a Dutch composer, organist, and pedagogue whose work
straddled the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque
eras. He was among the first major keyboard composers of Europe,
and his work as a teacher helped establish the north German organ
tradition.

Contents
Life
Influence
Works
Scores
Recordings
See also
References
Further reading One of the two surviving portraits of Sweelinck, this
one dates from 1606. It is attributed toGerrit
External links
Pietersz Sweelink, the composer's brother.

Life
Sweelinck was born in Deventer, Netherlands, in April or May 1562. He was the eldest son of organist Peter (or Pieter[2][3])
Swybbertszoon and Elske Jansdochter Sweeling, daughter of a surgeon.[4] Soon after Sweelinck's birth, the family moved to
Amsterdam, where from about 1564, Pieter Swybbertszoon served as organist of the Oude Kerk (Sweelinck's paternal grandfather
and uncle also were organists).[5] Jan Pieterszoon must have received first lessons in music from his father. Unfortunately, his father
died in 1573. He subsequently received general education under Jacob Buyck,[6] Catholic pastor of the Oude Kerk (these lessons
stopped in 1578 after the Reformation of Amsterdam and the subsequent conversion to Calvinism;[5] Buyck chose to leave the city).
Little is known about his music education after the death of his father; his music teachers may have included Jan Willemszoon Lossy,
a little-known countertenor and shawm player at Haarlem,[5] and/or Cornelis Boskoop, Sweelinck's father's successor at the Oude
Kerk.[5] If Sweelinck indeed studied in Haarlem, he was probably influenced to some degree by the organists of St.-Bavokerk, Claas
okerk.[5]
Albrechtszoon van Wieringen and Floris van Adrichem, both of whom improvised daily in the Bav

According to Cornelis Plemp, a pupil and friend of Sweelinck's, he started his 44-year career as organist of the Oude Kerk in 1577,
when he was 15.[5] This date, however, is uncertain, because the church records from 1577 to 1580 are missing and Sweelinck can
only be traced in Oude Kerk from 1580 onwards; he occupied the post for the rest of his life.[5] Sweelinck's widowed mother died in
1585, and Jan Pieterszoon took responsibility for his younger brother and sister. His salary of 100 florins was doubled the next year,
presumably to help matters. In addition, he was offered an additional 100 guilders[7] in the event that he married, which happened in
1590 when he married Claesgen Dircxdochter Puyner from Medemblik.[5] He was also offered the choice between a further 100
guilders and free accommodations in a house belonging to the town, the latter of which he chose.[7] Sweelinck's first published works
date from around 1592–94: three volumes of chansons, the last of which is the only remaining volume published in 1594[8] (for
reasons that are not certain, the composer adopted his mother's last name; "Sweelinck" first appears on the title-page of the 1594
[5]
publication).[5] Sweelinck then set to publishing psalm settings,
aiming to set the entire Psalter. These works appeared in four large
volumes published in 1604, 1613, 1614 and 1621. The last volume
was published posthumously and, presumably, in unfinished form.
Sweelinck died of unknown causes on 16 October 1621[9] and was
buried in the Oude Kerk. He was survived by his wife and five of
their six children; the eldest of them, Dirck Janszoon, succeeded his
father as organist of the Oude Kerk.

The composer most probably spent his entire life in Amsterdam, only
Oude Kerk, the Amsterdam church where occasionally visiting other cities in connection with his professional
Sweelinck worked almost his entire life. activities: he was asked to inspect organs, give opinions and advice
on organ building and restoration, etc. These duties resulted in short
visits to Delft, Dordrecht (1614), Enkhuizen, Haarlem (1594),
Harderwijk (1608), Middelburg (1603), Nijmegen (1605), Rotterdam (1610), Rhenen (1616), as well as Deventer, his birthplace
(1595, 1616).[6] Sweelinck's longest voyage was to Antwerpen in 1604, when he was commissioned by the Amsterdam authorities to
buy a harpsichord for the city. No documentary evidence has turned up to support the tradition, going back to Mattheson, that
Sweelinck visited Venice – perhaps a confusion with his brother, the painter Gerrit Pietersz Sweelink, who did – and similarly there is
no evidence that he ever crossed the English Channel, although copies of his music did such as the pieces included in the Fitzwilliam
Virginal Book. His popularity as a composer, performer and teacher increased steadily during his lifetime. Contemporaries nicknamed
him Orpheus of Amsterdam and even the city authorities frequently brought important visitors to hear Sweelinck's improvisations.

Influence
Sweelinck's only duties in Amsterdam were those of an organist. Contrary to
custom, he did not play the carillon or the harpsichord on formal occasions;
nor was he regularly required to produce compositions. Calvinist services did
not typically include organ playing due to the belief in what is now called the
Regulative Principle. The Regulative Principle restricted the elements of
worship to only that which was commanded in the New Testament. However,
the Consistory of Dordrecht of 1598 instructed organists to play variations on
the new Genevan psalm tunes before and after the service so that the people
would become familiar with them.[10] Sweelinck was employed instead by the
city itself. As he worked for Protestant magistrates the remainder of his life, it
is likely that he was an adherent of Calvinism. In the 1590s three of his
children were baptized in the Oude Kerk.[11] His employment allowed him
time for teaching, for which he was to become as famous as for his
compositions. Sweelinck's pupils included the core of what was to become the
north German organ school: Jacob Praetorius II, Heinrich Scheidemann, Paul
Siefert, Melchior Schildt and Samuel and Gottfried Scheidt.[12] Students of
Sweelinck were seen as musicians against whom other organists were A 1624 portrait of Sweelinck, engraved by
Jan Harmensz. Muller.
measured.[5] Sweelinck was known in Germany as the "maker of organists".
Sociable and respected, he was in great demand as a teacher.[13] His Dutch
pupils were undoubtedly many, but none of them became composers of note. Sweelinck, however, influenced the development of the
Dutch organ school, as is shown in the work of later composers such as Anthoni van Noordt. Sweelinck, in the course of his career,
had set music to Catholic, Calvinist and Lutheran liturgies.[14] He was the most important composer of the musically rich "golden
era" of the Netherlands.[5]
Sweelinck's influence spread as far as Sweden and England, carried to the former by Andreas Düben and to the latter by English
composers such as Peter Philips, who probably met Sweelinck in 1593. Sweelinck, and Dutch composers in general, had evident
links to the English school of composition. Sweelinck's music appears in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, which otherwise only
contains the work of English composers. He wrote variations on John Dowland's famous Lachrimae Pavane. John Bull, who was
probably a personal friend, wrote a set of variations on a theme by Sweelinck after the death of the Dutch composer
.

Works
Sweelinck represents the highest development of the Dutch keyboard
Variations on Mein junges Leben
school, and indeed represented a pinnacle in keyboard contrapuntal hat ein End'
complexity and refinement before J.S. Bach. However, he was a
0:00
skilled composer for voices as well, and composed more than 250
vocal works (chansons, madrigals, motets and Psalms). Performed by Matthias Flierl

Some of Sweelinck's innovations were of profound musical Variations on Est-ce Mars


importance, including the fugue—he was the first to write an organ 0:00
fugue which began simply, with one subject, successively adding
Performed by Ashtar Moïra
texture and complexity until a final climax and resolution, an idea
which was perfected at the end of the Baroque era by Bach. It is also
Problems playing these files? See media
generally thought that many of Sweelinck's keyboard works were help.
intended as studies for his pupils.[15] He was also the first to use the
pedal as a real fugal part.[16] Stylistically Sweelinck's music also brings together the richness, complexity and spatial sense of Andrea
and Giovanni Gabrieli, and the ornamentation and intimate forms of the English keyboard composers. In some of his works
Sweelinck appears as a composer of the baroque style, with the exception of his chansons which mostly resemble the French
Renaissance tradition.[17] In formal development, especially in the use of countersubject, stretto, and organ point (pedal point), his
s music).[18]
music looks ahead to Bach (who was quite possibly familiar with Sweelinck’

Sweelinck was a masterimproviser, and acquired the informal title of the "Orpheus of Amsterdam".[19] More than 70 of his keyboard
works have survived, and many of them may be similar to the improvisations that residents of Amsterdam around 1600 were likely to
have heard. In the course of his life, Sweelinck was involved with the musical liturgies of three distinctly different traditions:
Catholic, the Calvinist, and Lutheran—all of which are reflected in his work.[14] Even his vocal music, which is more conservative
than his keyboard writing, shows a striking rhythmic complexity and an unusual richness of contrapuntal devices.

Scores
A scholarly edition of Sweelinck's works has been published in the Netherlands in the years from 1974 to 1990, in 7
volumes (some of them divided in fascicles) with editors' notes in English:
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: Opera Omnia
/ Editio altera quam edendam curavit Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis(2nd revised edition edited
by Gustav Leonhardt, Alfons Annegarn, Frits Noske & al.), Amsterdam, VNM [Royal Dutch Society for Musicology],
1974-1990
A new scholarly edition of Sweelinck's complete keyboard worksBreitkopf
( & Härtel, 2004) is edited in 4 volumes by
Harald Vogel and Pieter Dirksen.

Recordings
Complete Keyboard Works. Various organists and harpsichordists. NM Classics 92119 (9 CDs)[20]
Het Sweelinck Monument, a complete recording of the vocal works of Sweelinck; The Gesualdo Consort conducted
by Harry van der Kamp, Glossa, (17 CDs), 2009-2010.[21] The recordings were simultaneously issued on CD and
[22]
also available in Dutch language book-CD presentation sets in the Netherlands.

See also
List of students of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

References
1. Dutch pronunciation (http://www.heardutchhere.net/vermeer.html)
2. Denis Arnold, ed. (1983).The New Oxford companion to music. 2. Oxford University Press.
3. Bernard Sonnaillon (1985).King of instruments: a history of the organ. Rizzoli. p. 161. ISBN 0-8478-0582-4.
4. Stephen Westrop, liner notes for "Christopher Herrick: Sweelinck: Organ Music", Hyperion CDA67421/2
5. Sadie, Stanley. 1980. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
. Vol.8. Macmillan Publishers Limited,
London. Pg. 406–407
6. Randall H. Tollefsen, Pieter Dirksen. "Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy
7. Noske, Frits. 1988. Oxford Studies of Composers, vol. 22: Sweelinck. Oxford England: Oxford University Press. Pg.
10
8. Noske, Frits. 1988. Oxford Studies of Composers, vol. 22: Sweelinck. Oxford England: Oxford University Press. Pg.
12
9. Noske, Frits. 1988. Oxford Studies of Composers, vol. 22: Sweelinck. Oxford England: Oxford University Press. Pg.
17
10. Kobald, Norma "Reformed Music Journal" V
ol. 9, No. 2. 1997. Langley, BC. Canada. Brookside Publishing. Pg. 36
11. Noske, Frits. 1988. Oxford Studies of Composers, vol. 22: Sweelinck. Oxford England: Oxford University Press. pg.
9
12. Oxford Studies of Composers, vol. 22: Sweelinck. Oxford England: Oxford University Press. Pg. 14–15
13. Noske, Frits. 1988. Oxford Studies of Composers, vol. 22: Sweelinck. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Pg.
16
14. Noske, Frits. 1988. Oxford Studies of Composers, vol. 22: Sweelinck. Oxford England: Oxford University Press. Pg.
66.
15. Noske, Frits. 1988. Oxford Studies of Composers, vol. 22: Sweelinck. Oxford England: Oxford University Press. Pg.
98
16. Baker’s biographical dictionary of musicians, 7th Edition. “Sweelinck, Jan Pieterszoon.”
17. Reese, Gustave. 1959.Music in the Renaissance.New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
18. Noske, Frits. 1988. Oxford Studies of Composers, vol. 22: Sweelinck. Oxford England: Oxford University Press. Pg.
130
19. (in Dutch) Orgelist oft Orpheus van Amsterdam, Ian Pietersz.(http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/mand001schi01_01/mand00
1schi01_01_0266.htm)in Karel van Mander's Schilder-boeck, 1604, courtesy of theDigital library for Dutch literature
20. Leo van Doeselaar, Peter van Dijk, Bob van Asperen, Menno van Delft, Siebe Henstra, Pieter Dirksen, Freddy
Eichelberger, Glen Wilson, etc.
21. An interview with Harry van der Kamp(http://www.glossamusic.com/glossa/context.aspx?Id=42) by Mark Wiggins,
2009
22. Het Sweelinck Monument(http://www.jpsweelinck.nl/)

Further reading
Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0-393-09530-4
Manfred Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1947. ISBN 0-393-09745-5
The Concise Edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians
, 8th ed. Revised by Nicolas Slonimsky
. New
York, Schirmer Books, 1993.ISBN 0-02-872416-X
Pieter Dirksen, The Keyboard Music of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck – Its Style, Significance and Influence.
(Utrecht,
1997). ISBN 90-6375-159-1
Sweelinck Studies, Proceedings of the Sweelinck Symposium, Utrecht 1999, (Utrecht 2001) Edited by Pieter
Dirksen. ISBN 90-72786-09-2
External links
Free scores by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinckin the Choral Public Domain Library(ChoralWiki)
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Free scores by Sweelinckat the International Music Score Library Project(IMSLP)

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