Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562 – 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. He was born in
Deventer, Netherlands, in April or May 1562. He was the
eldest son of organist Peter (or Pieter) Swybbertszoon
and Elske Jansdochter Sweeling, daughter of a
surgeon.Soon after Sw...(+)
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562 – 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. He was born in
Deventer, Netherlands, in April or May 1562. He was the
eldest son of organist Peter (or Pieter) Swybbertszoon
and Elske Jansdochter Sweeling, daughter of a
surgeon.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). 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, Catholic pastor of the
Oude Kerk (these lessons stopped in 1578 after the
Reformation of Amsterdam and the subsequent conversion
to Calvinism; 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, and/or Cornelis Boskoop,
Sweelinck's father's successor at the Oude Kerk. If
Sweelinck indeed studied in Haarlem, he was probably
influenced to some degree by the organists of
St.-Bavokerk, Claas Albrechtszoon van Wieringen and
Floris van Adrichem, both of whom improvised daily in
the Bavokerk.
Some of Sweelinck's innovations were of profound
musical importance, including the fugue—he was the
first to write an organ fugue which began simply, with
one subject, successively adding 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 generally thought that many of Sweelinck's
keyboard works were intended as studies for his pupils.
He was also the first to use the pedal as a real fugal
part. 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.
In formal development, especially in the use of
countersubject, stretto, and organ point (pedal point),
his music looks ahead to Bach (who was quite possibly
familiar with Sweelinck’s music).
Sweelinck was a master improviser, and acquired the
informal title of the "Orpheus of Amsterdam". 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. Even
his vocal music, which is more conservative than his
keyboard writing, shows a striking rhythmic complexity
and an unusual richness of contrapuntal devices.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Pieterszoon_Sweelinc
k).
Although originally composed for Chorus (SSATB), I
created this interpretation of "Gaudete omnes" (Rejoice
and be glad - SvWV 182 No. 32) for Wind Quintet (Flute,
Oboe, English Horn, French Horn & Bassoon).
SHEET MUSIC