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Pieter van
Dalem was born in or near Liege around 1550 and died in Naples
after 1601. He settled in Naples where he enjoyed an excellent reputation
as organist, and adapted his style to the Spanish-Neapolitan taste.
The Canzona Franzese is Dalem *s only composition for keyboard
that is known of.
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck was born in Deventer
around 1562. From his early youth until his death he lived in Amsterdam
and was never away from there for more than a few days. He occupied
only one post during his whole life: that of organist at the Oude
Kerk from 1577. There is no Amsterdam musician of distinction traceable
before Sweelinck and besides his father, who probably gave him his
first lessons, the only teacher who is mentioned is Jan Willemszoon
Lossy (1545-1629). The significance of Sweelinck is three-fold:
(1) as a composer of instrumental music, (2) as a composer of vocal
music and (3) as a teacher of the organ and composition. Throughout
his life he was much sought after in his capacity as a teacher.
As for his daily organ playing, there are several reports that it
drew a multitude of music-lovers into church. For foreigners, attendance
at Sweelinck's ‘ concerts' became mandatory. In 1594 Count Philip
Louis II of Hanau-Munzenberg listed as the principal attractions
of Amsterdam the Artillery House, a live elephant in the Hall of
the Archers' Guild, and 'hearing the city's organist’.
As regards harmony Sweelinck's music is of great interest for the
place it takes in the period of transition to classicism. The organ
and harpsichord works show affinity with the works of the English
Elizabethan composers. It includes fancies, echo fancies, toccatas,
a preludium and variations on chorale melodies, secular songs and
dances. The fancies - or fantasies - may be regarded as the earliest
of worked-out fugues, and are in three subdivisions. The toccatas
take the same place in Sweelinck 'S time as the 2- and 3-part inventions
in Baches. He died in 1621 and was buried in the Old Church.
John Bull was born in 1562 in England. From 1582
until his death in 1628 in Antwerp, John Bull was by profession
an organist, first at Hereford, then in the Chapel Royal, and lastly
at Antwerp from 1617. Bull had to leave England "through the guilt
of a corrupt conscience, to escape the punishment, which notoriously
he had deserved, and was designed to have been inflicted on him
by the hand of justice, for his incontinence, fornication, adultery,
and other grievous crimes".
His keyboard music is to be found in two volumes transcribed and
edited by John Steele (University of Sydney), Francis Cameron and
Thurston Dart in 1960 and 1963.
Bull's connection with Sweelinck is of interest,
andthe fact that the great Amsterdam organist included
a canon by Bull in his work on composition, and that Bull wrote
a fantasia on a fugue by Sweelinck within a few months of the death
of the latter, seems to show that the two were on terms of personal
friendship.
Abraham van den Kerckhoven was born
around 1618, probably in Mechelen. In the year 1634 he succeeded
Francois Cornet as organist of the church of St Catharine in Brussels;
he retained this post until his death in 1701. In 1648 he was appointed
chamber organist to archduke Leopold Willem of Austria, governor
of the Spanish Netherlands from 1648 to 1656. His name is also mentioned
in the archives as court organist in the period 1658-1684.
Guiseppe Tartini - born Pirano, Istria 1692, died
Padua 1770. Italian violinist, teacher and composer, famous for
his 'Trillo del Diavolo' sonata, founded a school of violin playing
in Padua in 1728. Teacher of Dutch violinists such as Hellendaal.
Flor Peeters was born in Tielen, Belgium, in 1903
the son of a church organist. He was a pupil of Dupr6 and Tournemire
and attended the Lemmens Institute, where he won highest honours
in organ playing. From 1923 until 1952 he was professor of organ
at the Lemmens Institute, and he also taught at the Royal Academy
of Music in Ghent, the Academy of Music in Tilburg, The Netherlands,
and the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp. He was appointed
head of the latter institution in 1952 and served in that position
until 1968. He died in 1986 on the 4th of July (his birthday).
Valetti was born in 1575, Pachulski,
Rebikoff and Vierne died between 1920-1940 and Mushell who was Professor
of Music at the University of Tashkent, is contemporary.
THE INSTRUMENTS
The house-organ was build by Knipscheer cerca 1790 and restored
by D. A. Flentrop in 1955, subsequently being brought out to Australia
by Dr Vincent Sheppard. There is one keyboard of 54 notes and there
are 4t ranks:
Prestant 8 '
Holp˙p 8'
Prestant 4 '
Fluit 4'
Octaaf 2'
There are a total of 246 pipes, on a low pressure of approximately
24 inches, the pipes being unnicked with quarter-mouths. The sound
produced is unforced yet with a prominent attack and a remarkably
penetrating quality.
The harpsichord is a Ruckers Flemish double by John Storrs
with 8’and 4’on the lower keyboard
and 8’ on the upper.
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