Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck

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Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1606). The portrait is attributed to his brother Gerrit Pietersz Sweelinck.

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (* April 1562 in Deventer ; † October 16, 1621 in Amsterdam ; various name variants) was a Dutch organist and composer . As a virtuoso and teacher he was internationally appreciated and had a significant influence on the North German organ school .

Life

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck was born as the eldest son of the organist Pieter Swybbertszoon and Elske Jansdaughter Sweeling, daughter of a surgeon from Deventer. Like his brother, the painter Gerrit Pieterszoon, and his two sisters Marie and Tryntgen, Jan Pieterszoon later took his mother's surname. The family moved to Amsterdam around 1564 because his father was appointed organist at the Oude Kerk . The father who will have introduced Jan Pieterszoon to music died in 1573 when his son was eleven years old. It is not certain from whom Sweelinck received his musical training. According to Johann Mattheson , he grew up in a traditional family of organists and studied with Joseph Zarlin ( Gioseffo Zarlino ) in Venice around 1557 (?) . According to recent research, Sweelinck was never in Venice, but knew the work of Zarlin and used it in his classes. According to the Amsterdam organist Jacob van Noordt (1680), he learned to play string and wind instruments as well as music theory in counterpoint and in the diminution technique from Jan Willemsz Lossy (around 1545-1629), a city musician in Haarlem . It is possible that Sweelinck was tutored by the two organists of the St. Bavo Church there , Claas Albrechtszoon van Wieringen and Floris van Adrichem. According to a statement by Sweelinck's pupil and friend Cornelis Plemp, Jan Pieterszoon took over the office of organist at the Oude Kerk in 1577 at the age of 14 or 15 and, according to Mattheson, was “already in his youth because of his nice finger guidance on the organ, and extremely good manner to play, especially famous ”.

Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, where Sweelinck played the organ for over 40 years

In the course of the Reformation , the Amsterdam Alteratie came into being in 1578 . The regent , the city administration, changed from the Catholic to the Calvinist creed. In the same year, the national synod decreed a ban on pictures , organs and polyphonic music during services in favor of unanimous singing of the psalms unaccompanied. Since the organs were owned by the city and Sweelinck was employed by the city administration, he retained his office and played the two organs of the Oude Kerk for at least one hour a day. It is controversial whether Sweelinck, who was raised Catholic, changed to the Protestant faith during the Alteratie. He created music using both Catholic and Protestant melodies and cultivated friendships with people of both denominations.

After his mother's death in 1585, Sweelinck had to provide for his younger brother and sister with his low salary. His marriage to the regent's daughter Claesgen Dircxdaughter Puijnder († January 2, 1637) from Medemblik in 1590 prompted an increase in salary. The city and church agreed to double Sweelinck's salary to 400 guilders a year and to grant him a free official apartment in Koestraat, on the site of a former monastery. From then on, Sweelinck was the highest paid organist in the republic. Sweelinck received additional income from his work as a teacher. Six children were born to the couple: Dirck (1591–1652), Pieter (1593–1670), Dyeuwer (1596–1597), Ysbrandt (around 1600–1662), Jan (around 1602–1662) and Elsge (1602–1664) , three of which were baptized in the Oude Kerk.

Sweelinck lived in Amsterdam all his life and was organist at the Oude Kerk for 44 years. As an organ expert he made several trips to approve new organs: to Haarlem (1594), his native town Deventer (1595, 1616), Middelburg (1603), Nijmegen (1605), Enkhuizen , Harderwijk (1608), Rotterdam (1610), Delft , Dordrecht (1614) and Rhenen (1616). His longest and only trip abroad took him to Antwerp in 1604, where he bought a harpsichord for the city of Amsterdam, the lid of which is now in the Rijksmuseum .

Sweelinck died unexpectedly, presumably after a brief illness, and was buried on October 20, 1621. In the Oude Kerk he found his final resting place in the ambulatory (grave slab No. 99). Sweelinck survived five out of six children and his wife. His eldest son Dirck Janszoon took over the organist's office in the Oude Kerk in the third generation.

Work and meaning

Sweelinck, copper engraving by Jan Harmensz. Muller, 1624

Sweelinck was valued throughout Europe as a composer, virtuoso and teacher. As an organist, he had a great influence on the North German organ school of the 17th century. Students of the “German organist maker” were August Brücken , Ulrich Cernitz , Andreas Düben , Matthias Leder , Jacob Praetorius the Younger , Johann Praetorius , Heinrich Scheidemann , Gottfried Scheidt , Samuel Scheidt , Melchior Schildt , Paul Siefert and Jonas Zornicht . His students copied his works for keyboard instruments, thus ensuring that they were preserved and distributed. Autographs of Sweelinck's works for keyboard instruments have not survived.

He was so known for his improvisations on the organ and the harpsichord that visitors came from far and wide to hear the Orpheus of Amsterdam . His organ playing was one of the city's main attractions. From around 1590, especially in the winter months, the tradition became established that Sweelinck improvised on the organ at 6 p.m., which attracted many merchants and representatives of the urban elite. Playing the organ was less of a concert character than a part of urban life, during which trade was conducted and businesses closed. In addition to organ music, ensemble music was also offered. This first bourgeois concert practice in Northern Europe stimulated further concert practice such as the evening music performed by Sweelinck's grandchildren Dieterich Buxtehude in Lübeck. When Philipp Ludwig II von Hanau-Munzenberg visited Amsterdam in 1594, he noted in his diary: “You also saw a living elephant there. To see the artillery houses and to hear the organist. ” Peter Philips visited Sweelinck in Amsterdam in 1593 and John Bull also traveled there to meet the Dutch master. He based his Fantasia chromatica on a theme by Sweelinck. Orlando Gibbons paid a visit to Sweelinck in 1613 and let him influence his way of composing. In the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book four works by Sweelinck, as the only non-English composers were taken.

The last master of Dutch vocal polyphony was a formative composer during the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque . In his work, polyphonic composition techniques of imitation are combined with figurations that have emerged from the practice of improvisation. Sweelinck's psalm settings were performed in private circles such as the Collegium musicum , but possibly also in Oude Kerk outside of church services, as there was sufficient reverberation available here. The Collegium musicum was a closed circle of music lovers among the merchants, which was founded in Amsterdam at the beginning of the 16th century and performed his vocal works under the direction of Sweelinck.

Works

Autograph of Canon in unison SwWV 195 from 1618

Sweelinck composed more than 70 works for keyboard instrument ( toccatas , fantasies and ricercare and variations), which, however, were not printed during his lifetime, but only survived in the manuscripts of his students. Possibly they served mainly as teaching material for composition and improvisation instructions. Sweelinck combined elements of virtuoso English virginal music with Spanish and Italian organ styles. The 15 Toccaten Sweelincks are characterized by great improvisational freedom and present the instrument in question in a representative way. A special closeness to masters like Andrea Gabrieli and Claudio Merulo can be seen . In contrast, the 14 fantasies begin polyphonically and develop a basic idea, such as his famous Chromatic Fantasia, the two hexachord fantasies and the six echo fantasies. The monothematic, serious fantasies are considered the forerunners of the classical fugues. The variations are based on very different melodies. Sweelinck composed 13 chorale variations on Gregorian melodies, Lutheran chorales and Geneva psalms, eight series of variations on secular songs and other variations (Ballo del granduca, Engelsche fortuyn, More palatino).

For the lute , Sweelinck has received three psalm compositions in Jan Thysius' lute book as well as a courante and three volts in an English lute manuscript.

The over 250 vocal works , which he composed exclusively in French, Italian or Latin, include chansons and madrigals as well as motets and psalms . His first collection of vocal works appeared in 1584, five-part secular chansons that have Orlando di Lasso influences . Sweelinck was later influenced by Peter Philips . In 1612 Sweelinck brought out the Rimes françoises et italiennes mis en musique, à deux en à trois parties , chansons and madrigals in arrangements of originally four or five-part works. The setting of the Geneva Psalter can be seen as his crowning achievement . The first collection of 50 psalms appeared in 1604 and contained four to eight-part movements. Two more volumes of 30 psalms each were printed in 1613 and 1614. With regard to the style of the sentence, these are more expressive and virtuoso in text interpretation than the first collection. The fourth and final collection was published posthumously in 1621 a few months after Sweelinck's death. A counterpart to the Psalms are the Cantiones sacrae , published in Antwerp in 1619, with 37 Latin motets for five voices on texts of the Roman Catholic liturgy. They are not so dominated by a complex polyphony as by a counterpoint, which finds its starting point in baroque harmony, and by a frequently chromatic melody.

Audio file / audio sample Audio sample: Variation on Est-ce mars? for organ ? / i

Sweelinck's organs

Inside of the Oude Kerk with Niehoff organ, where Sweelinck was the organist

Sweelinck had two organs at his disposal in Amsterdam's Oude Kerk. The large organ on the west gallery was built by Hendrik Niehoff and his brother Herman as well as Hans (ke) from Cologne according to the contract of 1539 . Small changes were made in 1544/1545 and 1567/1568. Hendrik Niehoff and Jasper Jansz (probably the son of Hans von Köln) signed the cutlery from 1544. After the iconoclasm of 1566, Peter Jans (de Swart) restored both organs in 1567/1568. The large organ had 25 registers distributed over three manuals and a pedal. Hendrik Niehoff and Jasper Jansz (Johanson) built the small organ with two manuals and 13 registers in 1544 parallel to the work on the large organ. Peter Jans replaced and added one register each. The two instruments were among the most progressive organ works of their time and served as models for other new buildings. Due to the relatively low wind pressure and the construction with a spring shutter , the actions were smooth and enabled quick figurations, as required by Sweelinck's organ works. They were tuned to the mid-tone and offered a variety of tonal possibilities, especially for the representation of polyphonic music. The main work had a large keyboard compass of more than four octaves, from the Contra-F (F 1 ) to a 2 . With its full principal choir on the lower chest, it represented the traditional block work ( backplate ) and was referred to as the great principal . A flute choir and other individual voices stood on the top drawer. In the upper section, wide flutes and reeds sounded , in the Rückpositiv the small principal , flutes and small reeds. In Sweelinck's time, the great organ had the following disposition :

I Rückpositiv FGA – g 2 a 2
Principal 8th'
octave 4 ′
mixture
Sharp
Quintadena 8th'
Hollow pipe 4 ′
Sifflöt 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
Krummhorn 8th'
Bar pipe 8th'
shawm 4 ′
II Hauptwerk F 1 G 1 A 1 –g 2 a 2
Principal 16 ′
Octave + super octave 8 ′ + 4 ′
mixture
Sharp
III Oberwerk FGA – g 2 a 2
Principal 8th'
Hollow pipe 8th'
Open flute 4 ′
Nasat 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
Gemshorn 2 ′
Sifflöt 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ or 1 ′
Third cymbal
Trumpet 8th'
Zinc D 8th'
Pedal FGA – c 1
Night horn 2 ′
Trumpet 8th'

The small organ from 1544 had been arranged with 14 registers as follows since 1568:

I main work FGA – g 2 a 2
Hollow flute 8th'
Principal 4 ′
octave 2 ′
mixture
Sharp
Quintadena 8th'
Gemshorn 2 ′
Sifflöt 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ or 1 ′
Third cymbal
shawm 4 ′
II breastwork FGA – g 2 a 2
Hollow pipe 4 ′
Krummhorn 8th'
shelf 8th'
Pedal FGA – c 1
Trumpet 8th'

expenditure

  • The Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis (Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: Opera Omnia, 1957-2021) arranged for a complete edition of his works .
  • All works for keyboard instruments (edited by Pieter Dirksen and Harald Vogel ) were published by Breitkopf & Härtel (2004–2007).

Appreciation

A predecessor of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam was for a long time called the Sweelinck Conservatorium .

In the Netherlands 25 guilders - banknotes that came into circulation in 1972, Sweelinck was displayed.

On October 16, 1997, an asteroid of the main outer belt discovered in 1960 was named after Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: (7621) Sweelinck .

In 2010 the first complete recording of Sweelinck's vocal works, Het Sweelinck Monument , was released on 17 CDs with the Gesualdo Consort Amsterdamer under the direction of Harry van der Kamp .

literature

  • Robert Eitner :  Sweelinck, Jan Pieterszoon . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, pp. 258-261.
  • Klaus Beckmann: Questions of authenticity. Legends of the Sweelinck reception. In: Organ - journal for the organ . Issue 2, 2012, pp. 29–35.
  • Ignace Bossuyt: "The Orpheus of Amsterdam." The Life and Work of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. In: The Low Countries. Vol. 8, 2000, pp. 259-262 ( online ).
  • Albert Clement: Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. A city organist van wereldfam tussen calvinisme en katholicisme. In: Louis Peter Grijp, Ignace Bossuyt (ed.): Een muziekgeschiedenis der Nederlanden. Amsterdam Univ. Press, Amsterdam 2001, ISBN 90-5356-488-8 , pp. 182-189.
  • Pieter Dirksen : The Keyboard Music of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. Its Style, Significance and Influence. Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, Utrecht 1997, ISBN 90-6375-159-1 .
  • Pieter Dirksen (Ed.): Sweelinck Studies, Proceedings of the Sweelinck Symposium, Utrecht 1999. STIMU, Foundation for Historical Performance Practice, Utrecht 2002, ISBN 90-72786-09-2 .
  • Frits Noske: Sweelinck. (= Oxford Studies of Composers , Vol. 22). Oxford University Press, Oxford u. a. 1988, ISBN 0-19-315259-2 .
  • Maarten Albert Vente : The Brabant Organ. On the history of organ art in Belgium and Holland in the Gothic and Renaissance ages . HJ Paris, Amsterdam 1963.
  • Bernhard Waritschlager: Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. In: Christoph Kammertöns , Siegfried Mauser (Hrsg.): Lexikon des Klaviers . Laaber, Laaber 2006, ISBN 3-89007-543-6 , pp. 705 f.

Web links

Commons : Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The GND lists among others: Johan Peterssen Sweeling, Jean Pierre Swelingh, Jan Peter Sweelinck, Johan Peterssen Sweling, Johann Peterssen Sweling, Jan Pieterszon Sweelinck, Jan Pieterszn Sweelinck, Jan Pieters Sweelinck, Jan Pieter Sweelinck, Jan Pieterszoon Sweeling, Jan Pieterszoon Zwelinck, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelingh, Jan Pieterszoon Sweling, Jan Pieterszoon Swelingh, Jan Pietersz Swelinck, Jan Pieterszoon Swelinck, Johann Peter Sweelinck.
  2. ^ Noske: Sweelinck. 1988, p. 16.
  3. ↑ Ignace Bossuyt: “The Orpheus of Amsterdam.” The Life and Work of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. In: The Low Countries. Vol. 8, 2000, p. 259 ( online , accessed September 15, 2019).
  4. ^ Johann Mattheson: Basis of an honor gate . Hamburg 1740, p. 331 ( online , accessed September 15, 2019). Mattheson discusses the "inconsistency" that Zarlino died two years before Sweelinck was born (p. 333).
  5. ↑ Christian Schruff (SWR2 music lesson): “Orpheus von Amsterdam” and “Hamburgischer Organistenmacher” , accessed on September 15, 2019 (PDF file; 305 kB).
  6. ↑ a b c Clement: Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. 2001, p. 183.
  7. ^ Johann Mattheson: Basis of an honor gate . Hamburg 1740, p. 331 ( online , accessed September 15, 2019).
  8. ↑ Peter Paul Kaspar: The most important musicians in portrait. 3rd edition, Marix, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-86539-905-2 , p. 54.
  9. ^ Clement: Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. 2001, p. 186.
  10. ^ Noske: Sweelinck. 1988, p. 9.
  11. ^ Grave place in the Oude Kerk , accessed on September 15, 2019.
  12. ^ Noske: Sweelinck. 1988, p. 16.
  13. ^ Johann Mattheson: Basis of an honor gate . Hamburg 1740: "so that our Schweling was only called the Hamburg organist maker". ( online , accessed September 15, 2019).
  14. ^ A b Clement: Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. 2001, p. 185.
  15. ↑ Den Hertog: Anthoni van Noordt en zijn Tabulatuurboeck in het kader van de Amsterdamse orgelcultuur tussen 1630 en 1675. , p. 418, accessed on September 15, 2019 (PDF file; 20.9 MB).
  16. ↑ Den Hertog: Anthoni van Noordt en zijn Tabulatuurboeck in het kader van de Amsterdamse orgelcultuur tussen 1630 en 1675. , p. 322, accessed on September 15, 2019 (PDF file; 20.9 MB).
  17. ↑ Amstelodamum. Vol. 54, 1967 , p. 13 (PDF file; 9.58 MB).
  18. ^ John Caldwell: English Keyboard Music Before the Nineteenth Century. Dover, New York 1985, ISBN 0-486-24851-8 , p. 138 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  19. ^ Noske: Sweelinck. 1988, p. 66.
  20. ↑ Den Hertog: Anthoni van Noordt en zijn Tabulatuurboeck in het kader van de Amsterdamse orgelcultuur tussen 1630 en 1675. , p. 425, accessed on September 15, 2019 (PDF file; 20.9 MB).
  21. ^ Noske: Sweelinck. 1988, p. 98.
  22. ↑ Den Hertog: Anthoni van Noordt en zijn Tabulatuurboeck in het kader van de Amsterdamse orgelcultuur tussen 1630 en 1675. , p. 447, accessed on September 15, 2019 (PDF file; 20.9 MB).
  23. ^ Konrad Ragossnig : Handbook of the guitar and lute. Schott, Mainz 1978, ISBN 3-7957-2329-9 , p. 39.
  24. ↑ a b Harald Vogel : Die Orgeln Sweelinck and the sources for registration , p. 140, accessed on September 15, 2019 (PDF).
  25. ^ Vente: The Brabant Organ. 1963, p. 66.
  26. ↑ Den Hertog: Anthoni van Noordt en zijn Tabulatuurboeck in het kader van de Amsterdamse orgelcultuur tussen 1630 en 1675. , p. 133, accessed on September 15, 2019 (PDF file; 20.9 MB).
  27. ^ Vente: The Brabant Organ. 1963, p. 73.
  28. ↑ Harald Vogel : Die Orgeln Sweelinck and the sources for registration , p. 138, accessed on September 15, 2019 (PDF).
  29. ^ Vente: The Brabant Organ. 1963, p. 74.
  30. ^ Netherlands (banknotes) , accessed September 15, 2019.
  31. ↑ Het Sweelinck Monument , accessed September 15, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Sweelinck, Jan Pieterszoon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sweelinck, Jan Pieters; Sweelinck, Jan Pietersz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch organist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH April 1562
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam
DATE OF DEATH October 16, 1621
Place of death Amsterdam