Paduana Lachrymae SweelinckWorks for Keyboard, Volume 2 CHAN 0758 Robert Woolley harpsichord / virginal CHANDOS early music Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562 – 1621) Keyboard Works, Volume 2 1 Toccata Noni Toni, SwWV 297/L 16 5:21 2 Esce mars, SwWV 321/N 3 4:33 3 Paduana Lachrymae, SwWV 328/N 10* 5:19 4 Allemand (Gratie), SwWV 318/N 7* 3:52 (formerly known as More Palatino) Portrait painting by Gerrit Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1566 Sweelinck Pieterszoon Gerrit by painting Portrait – ?1628)/AKG London Images, 5 Toccata C2, SwWV 283/L 20 3:28 6 Die flichtig Nimphae (Vluchtige nymph), SwWV 331/not in N 2:08 Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck 3 13 Unter der Linden grune (Onder een linde groen), * 5:21 7 Toccata Primi Toni d2, SwWV 286/L 15 3:55 SwWV 325/N 8 14 8:01 8 Mein junges Leben hat ein Endt, SwWV 324/N 6 6:24 Fantasia Crommatica à 4 d1, SwWV 258/L 1 TT 63:37 9 Toccata à 3 G2, SwWV 289/L 23 2:17 Robert Woolley harpsichord/virginal* 10 Pavan Philippi, SwWV 329/N 11 7:02 Copy by Malcolm Rose, 2004, of a harpsichord by Lodewijk Theewes of 1579 in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, kindly loaned by Douglas Amrine 11 Toccata Secundi Toni g1, SwWV 292/L 21* 2:38 Copy by Adlam Burnett, 1979, of a muselar virginal by Ioannes Ruckers of 1611 in the collection of the Vleeshuis Museum, Antwerp, 12 Von der Fortuna werd ich getrieben (Engelse Fortuijn), provided by the Finchcocks Musical Museum SwWV 320/N 2* 3:12 Pitch: A = 415 Hz Temperament: Fifth comma mean tone 4 5 Italian, particularly Venetian, keyboard music and procedures. What does the surviving Sweelinck: Keyboard Works, Volume 2 (Andrea Gabrieli, Merulo) and from English music in the manuscript sources tell us music (Blitheman, Bull, Philips). Alan Curtis about the player-improviser? An extant covered this latter influence in great detail score, of course, only captures one particular Who was Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, the prohibited from playing their instrument in in his ground-breaking book Sweelinck’s ‘working out’ of an idea or group of ideas: it so-called ‘Orpheus of Amsterdam’? Of his the services, a situation that was to remain Keyboard Music (Leiden, 1969). The most is perhaps best seen as an idealised version, early life, we know that he was born in the the case until long after Sweelinck’s death. comprehensive investigation of Sweelinck’s recording not a single ‘performance’ but the eastern Dutch city of Deventer in 1562; Sweelinck was a renowned organ expert keyboard music is by Pieter Dirksen: optimum treatment of themes, control of that his father, Peter Swybbertszoon (Jan (details survive of his travels to various Dutch The Keyboard Music of Jan Pieterszoon contrapuntal textures, construction of form, Pieterszoon later took his mother’s family towns to inspect organs) and a sought-after Sweelinck (Utrecht, 1997). Dirksen’s new and application of florid passagework. In name), and other members of his family organ teacher. Many organists came to study works catalogue numbering (SwWV) his harpsichord and virginal recital, Robert were organists; that the family moved to with him, particularly from Germany, and is employed in this text, alongside the Woolley selects five toccatas, a fantasia, and Amsterdam when Jan was two years of age he was later termed the ‘hamburgischen numbering used in the second edition eight sets of variations on secular melodies. so that his father could take up the organist’s Organistenmacher’, as he taught the organists (1974) of the Opera Omnia collections of the Collectively, the five toccatas recorded post at the Oude Kerk (Old Church); and who went on to occupy the posts at the four keyboard music (published under the control here show what this virtuosic genre meant that his early music education was probably principal churches in Hamburg. of three editors: L[eonhardt], Annegarn, to Sweelinck: the controlled synthesis and gained through his father, his father’s There are some 254 vocal works (psalm and N[oske]). Two editions of Sweelinck’s dramatic organisation of chordal sonorities, successor (Cornelis Boskoop), and Jan settings, motets, chansons, madrigals) keyboard music have recently been published: contrapuntal argument, and florid passagework. Willemszoon Lossy at nearby Haarlem. to Sweelinck’s name and around seventy Dirksen’s (in collaboration with Harald On closer inspection, these challenging works Throughout his working life, Sweelinck keyboard works in various genres; the vocal Vogel) for Breitkopf & Härtel, and Siegbert are also expert demonstrations of how small held the position that his father had held works were printed, but, by comparison, Rampe’s for Bärenreiter. Each edition takes rhythmic-melodic motifs can be ordered, at the Oude Kerk. The town’s Protestant the keyboard works were circulated in into account recent Sweelinck research and expanded through repetition over a specific magistracy controlled this position (after manuscripts, mainly by pupils. We owe a gives fresh readings of the available sources. harmonic scheme, and made to explore the the Dutch Republic’s official adoption of debt of gratitude to the scribes, therefore, for Sweelinck the keyboardist was, of course, full compass of the keyboard. For instance, the Protestantism in 1578), not the church, and preserving the keyboard music (performance an improviser. As an organist playing Toccata C2, SwWV 283/L 20 begins with it employed him to play organ ‘recitals’ every can be argued on a case-by-case basis for his daily concerts or as a harpsichordist simple, ascending and descending scales and day and to oversee the maintenance of the either organ or stringed keyboard instrument) providing entertainment at social functions flowing counterpoint. Short, repetitive motifs church’s large and small organs (which were and for allowing us to glimpse Sweelinck’s (only occasionally it seems), he was used to emerge, first in the right hand (over sustained owned by the town, not the church). In the multifaceted, late-Renaissance keyboard inventing different sorts of music out of his left hand chords) and then the left hand newly Reformed Amsterdam, organists were style, which shows distinct influences from head according to learnt, formulaic patterns (under sustained right hand chords); focusing 6 7 equally on right and left hands, the composer when defining ‘Fantasie’, the principal and diminution (theme in short note values); Die flichtig Nimphae (Vluchtige nymph), reveals in the remainder of the work a lexicon kind of music made ‘without a dittie’ it is a work with a mounting sense of drama SwWV 331/not in N of patterned motifs (formed from scales (i.e. unsupported by text): as it becomes increasingly enlivened (and at Esce mars, SwWV 321/N 3 and broken chords) explored methodically …that is, when a musician taketh a point the end is brought to a climax) by decorative Mein junges Leben hat ein Endt remains through repetition. The Toccata à 3 G2, at his pleasure, and wresteth and turneth figuration. the best known of Sweelinck’s sets of SwWV 289/L 23 shares a similar propensity it as he list, making either much or little The many surviving variation cycles – on keyboard variations on secular melodies. towards simple order and control. The of it according as shall seem best in sacred melodies (Calvinist psalm melodies and After a simple setting of the haunting melody Toccata Primi Toni d2, SwWV 286/L 15 is his own conceit. In this may more art Lutheran chorale melodies) and on secular (the simplicity returns in the final variation), representative of those toccatas that feel less be showne than in any other musicke, songs or dances – attest to Sweelinck’s prowess the variations increase in pace and complexity, formulaic when they are studied and practised because the composer is tide to nothing and ingenuity in this genre. In fact, the only each variation exploiting line by line different (and therefore perhaps less pedagogical in but that he may adde, diminish, and alter eyewitness account of Sweelinck performing ideas. Here, as elsewhere in Sweelinck’s origin?), and in their engineering of drama at his pleasure. is from Guillelmus Baudartius (1625), who variations and in other genres, much of and display more progressive in concept and This Fantasia is an eloquent, sectional essay recalled hearing Sweelinck improvise around the patterned embellishment is redolent of gesture. In SwWV 286, flowing counterpoint that explores one essential and at that time twenty-five variations on a secular tune:Den that adopted by Elizabethan and Jacobean gives way very subtly to expansive scales across familiar theme: the descending chromatic lustelicken Mey is nu in zijnen tijdt (The merry virginalists in their artful and internationally the keyboard; strict, imitative counterpoint fourth, or as it was later termed, the passus May has now arrived). Here are the cycles disseminated keyboard works. In fact, the brings a rational contrast thereafter, before duriusculus (‘a somewhat hard step’), which presented in this recital in possible date order, first three of the above-listed works have very florid writing returns to provide a concluding starts on the tonic note and falls to the following Pieter Dirksen’s recent research, the clear English connections in terms of style cadenza-like flourish. The Toccata Noni dominant note via all intervening semitones. earliest from around 1606, the latest quite and source: the melody set in SwWV 320 Toni, SwWV 297/L 16 and the Toccata In unequal temperaments this theme has definitely from the period 1614/1615: was also set by Byrd. SwWV 328 is a setting Secundi Toni g1, SwWV 292/L 21 provide an intriguing character. In its structure Von der Fortuna werd ich getrieben of Dowland’s famous pavan, and SwWV 329 further demonstration of toccata forms, the and ambition one sees in the Fantasia (Engelse Fortuijn), SwWV 320/N 2 takes the influential pavan of 1580 by Peter latter being of particular interest to the player Crommatica characteristics typical of the Paduana Lachrymae, SwWV 328/N 10 Philips as a basis for variations.