Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (Zweling, Schweling), rightly famous for his choral music, was, above all, a keyboard player and composer of keyboard music. He was also a distinguished Amsterdammer during the century when it was a great European center of art, architecture, science and literature - described by Vondel as the "Queen of Europe". The zeal of the lowlands, and especially Amsterdam, for keyboard music was perhaps rivalled only by Elizabethan England where the harpsichord was becaming enormously popular, and where its vogue was enhanced by the music of Sweelinck's contemporaries, William Byrd, Giles Farnaby, and JohnBull.
Prosperous Amsterdam in the time of William of Orange retained a serious regard for music in spite of tastes that had become puritanical in other areas. In the Oude Kerk, Sweelinck was retained not by the Calvinistic congregation, but by the Burgomeesters, to play every day after service in the evenings, as well as on Sundays. The two organs in the church were the proporty, not of the church, but of the City of Amsterdam. Whether Sweelinck remained a Roman Catholic, or became an adherent of the Reformed theology, is both unknown and irrelevant. The use of the organ in church was fiercely argued during the seventeenth century. Even the venerable Constantijn Huyghens published a book not long after Sweelinck's time (while his son Dirck was organist at the Oude Kerk) called On the Use or Non-use of Organs in Churches of the United Low Countries. He concluded that it should be permitted, if it were done with discretion, and was shortly answered by a vigorous antidotum published by another more puritanical writer.
Sweelinck's concerts on the organ of the Oude Kerk drew such praise from admirers that the poets Hooft and Vondel both contributed poems in his memory. His contemporaries included the poet Roemer Visscher, the scientist Constantijn Huyghens, and the builder of both the Westerkerk and many of Amsterdam's famous towers, the architect Hendrik de Keyser. Although the distinguished group of musicians poets and artists which formed the "Circle of Muiden" (so called after the castle of Muiden in which they frequently met) came into formal existence only after Sweelinck's death, he was a guest of its owner, Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, and later his son Dirck was persuaded to join the circle to play on the "klavesim" at Muiden.
"Mr. Jan" also became famous as the "organistenmaker" who drew students (not the least of whom was his own son) of prodigious abilities, such as Samuel Scheidt, from Halle, and Jakob Praetorius, from Hamburg. Others, including Scheidemann, came from as far away as Leipzig and Danzig. Historians delight to point out that the tradition of composition associated with Sweelinck reaches from Scheidemann through Reinken to none other than J. S. Bach. Sweelinck never journeyed farther from North Holland than Antwerp, and then only for a few days. His own student days were spent with a local master, probably Jan Willemsz Lossy. His reputation was as great in his own time as it is today, and his native city gave due honor to the "Orpheus of Amsterdam", which it did not always give his contemporary, Rembrandt van Riijn.
It is very likely that Sweelinck was acquainted with the Englishman John Bull, who lived in Brussels and Antwerp after 1617, and was in the Lowlands as early as 1601. Bull wrote a Fantasia based on one of Sweelinck's themes in the year of his death, possibly as a commemoratio. Another English contemporary, the lutenist John Dowland, copied works of Sweelinck, and perhaps met him during his time as lutenist to the Danish Court of Christian IV. Such influences from across the channel gave to both English and Dutch musicians a cosmopolitan keyboard style, now related to the lute, now to the idiom of the keyboard. While Sweelinck never journeyed to Venice to study with Zarlino (an error perpetrated in Mattheson's Ehren-Pforte of 1740), he did know the latter's treatise, Istituzioni Harmoniche. He is known to have advised his students to study it, but so far, only rumor supports the idea that he also made a translation of it for them.
Sweelinck's trip to Antwerp in 1604, his longest journey from Amsterdam, had a musical purpose which must have pleased him, for he was sent at the behest of the city fathers to purchase a harpsichord for the town. Although Antwerp was reluctantly ceding its primacy as a port, because of its shallow harbor, to the diligent amsterdammers, it could boast of a superiority which doubtless interested "Mr. Jan" much more: he must certainly have purchased an instrument from the workshop of Hans Ruckers, who with his sons Johannes (Jean) and Andreas, was the most famous harpsichord maker in all of Europe.
A fascinating speculation, which could have influence on the performance of Sweelinck's keyboard music, centers on the possibility that he was also a player of the lute. This arises not only because of his possible connection with Dowland and other lutenists, but especially because a curious reference to a "Chyterboeck by Mr. Sweelinck" (or instruction book for lute or guitar) occurs in several booksellers' catalogs in and around Amsterdam later in the century. No copy of the supposed work survives, but the popularity of the lute and related instruments in Amsterdam was well known (Huyghens, for instance, did not neglect to take along his lute when he went to study in England), and the freedom demanded in the performance of Sweelinck's keyboard music ("Mein junges Leben" or the "Lachrimae"), for instance, makes it seem likely.
Sweelinck is a favorite with historians because his music initiates and illustrates styles and techniques which were to figure in keyboard music well into the eighteenth century. If his student, Samuel Scheidt, can be called the originator of the organ chorale preludem as much can be attributed to Sweelinck himself because of the influence his chorale variations had on Scheidt. In the Toccatas especially, he formed a spectacular bridge between the ruminating, free Venetian style, and that of later northern composers such as Froberger and even Buxtehude. He took the folksong variation to a higher point of perfection than his English contemporaries, and his Echo Fantasias represent a unique achievement, perhaps rivaled in choral music by the Italians of St. Mark's but never equalled in keyboard music until the antiphonal organ works of French composers at the end of the century.

The keyboard instruments of Sweelinck's day possess some characteristic sounds which have to do with the integrity of expression in his music. An awareness of these is essential for any modern performance; indeed, the music sometimes stands or falls on the point of authenticity of sound. Of the two organs used by Sweelinck in the Oude Kerk, nothing remains; the present instrument there was built in the early eighteenth century. The most notable difference between the north European organs of Sweelinck's time and those of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries can be observed in the Pedal division, which was intended in the earlier instruments almost entirely for cantus firmus lines or organ points, for which it was often coupled to another division. The Pedal had very few stops and was unsuited to contrapuntal playing; even the pedal keyboards tended to be rudimentary and less convenient than those of Bach's day. The disposition of th larger organ in the Oude Kerk follows:

Builders: Hendrik Niehoff and Hans Suys, circa 1540, altered 1567 (Sweelinck became organist at the Oude Kerk in 1581.)

HOOFDWERK FF-a' - Prestant 8 - Octaav 4 and 2 - Mixtuur - Scherp RUGWERK - Prestant 8 - Octaav 4 - Mixtuur - Scherp - Quintadeen 8 - Roerfluit 8 - Roerfluit 4 - Baarpijè 8 (reed) - Sifflet 1-1/3 - Kromhoorn 8 - Schalmey 4 - Tremulant (F to a"; no F sharp, no G sharp, no g" sharp)

BOVENWERK - Prestant 8 - Roerfluit 8 - Fluit (open) 4 - Nasard 2-2/3 - Gemshoorn 2 - Siffet 1-1/3 (or 1?) - Tertschimbel - Trompet 8 - Zinck 8 (CDE - a"; no g" sharp) PEDAAL - Trompet 8 - Nachthoorn 2 (with coupler, to Hoofdwerk, one octave lower)

Mr. Leonhardt had used for these recordings one of the most splendid of the Dutch early eighteenth century organs, which is in the 15th century Larenskerk in Alkmaar. It is a large instrument which Mr. Leonhardt uses in the style appropriate to the music, avoiding heavy 16' pedal sound and other effects unlikely for Sweelinck. The alkmaar instrument, restored recently by D. A. Flentrop, is almost entirely the work of the Schnitger family in 1725. Its main case, which dates from Sweelinck's time, was designed by the celebrated van Campen; the Schnitgers retained some pipes from the earlier organ. The spacious acoustics of the great Gothic church contribute much to the effect of this instrument and the reverberation that is heard here is important for organ music of this, or any other, period.
The harpsichords available to Sweelinck would habe been of the Flemish sort (also popular in England) such as the one he was commissioned ti purchase in Antwerp in 1604 for the city of Amsterdam. Although it very likely possessed two keyboards, with an 8' and 4' register on each of two keyboards, they could not be coupled in the manner of an eighteenth century instrument. So far as is known now, it was only after the time of the Ruckers family that couplers came into use, for the very good reason that the keyboards were at different pitches, so that transposition was possible. For these recordings, Mr. Leonhardt has used a French harpsichord of the early eighteenth century. In view of the splendor of the sound available, he has occasionally employed a Plenum consisting of 8', 8' and 4' (using the coupler, operated by sliding the topo keyboard in and out), although this effect was impossible on Sweelinck's instrument.
Beyond his obvious talent for performance and interpretation, Mr. Leonhardt is remarkable for his practical musicology. Sweelinck lived and composed long before the days of equal temperament, and Mr. Leonhardt has tuned the harpsichord in mean-tone tuning for this reason. There are some surprises for the twentieth century listener. Major chords, especially in final cadences, have a dramatic clarity and purity. Free of the roughness of tempered thirds, they incisively punctuate the harmonic outline.
Pitches altered to effect this tuning are noticeable in exposed passages, and are disturbing, at first, to some listeners. Some notes sound "out of tune", but it is just this difference which brings them into pure third relationship in harmonies.
Within a hundred years of Sweelinck's death, mean-tone tuning succumbed to equal temperament and the harmonic complexities of first-rank keyboard compositions. Sebastian Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" as a monument is both cornerstone and gravestone.

In 1943, the Netherlands Society for Music History republished Sweelinck's complete keyboard works (Seiffert), attempting to divide them into those intended for the organ, the harpsichord or both. Although such a separation of music from an age when much music was written simply for "Klavier", leaving the choice of medium to the performer, must always be somewhat arbitrary, much of Sweelinck's music benefits from performance on one instrument rather than on the other. It is just as unlikely that the variations on secular tunes, such as "Est-ce Mars" of "Mein junges Leben" were intended for the organ, as it is certain that the chorale variations calling for Pedal cantus firmus were not meant for the harpsichord. The Echo Fantasias were surely only organ pieces and works such as the Fantasia Chromatica, with the chromatic motif on which it is constructed, played on a reed stop in the Pedal, have a special affinity for the organ. Aside from this, some of the pieces, especially the Toccatas and certain of the Fantasias, seem equally appropriate to either keyboard instrument. It is true, also, that some of the harpsichord pieces are effective on the organ, even though the figuration and arpeggiated style point to the harpsichord. In some cases, it would have been impossibible or, at best, inconvenient to transfer works to the organ, either because of the difference in keyboard range or because of missing chromatic notes in the extreme treble and bass registers of organ keyboards.

Fantasia 8 - Although the Seiffert edition lists work as for "organ or harpsichord," its dominant features suggest the organ. One such characteristic is the cantus firmus, which can be extracted from the inner voices or bass and put into the Pedal, employing a reed, as Mr. Leonhardt does in this performance. The lenght of the work and the obvious divisions into large sections (unlike some of the more episodic Toccatas and Fantasias) also suggest the differing pitch levels and sonorities associated with different keyboard divisions of a good-sezed organ. Rapid scale passages and other figurations, associated more often with the harpsichord, can also be satisfactorily executed on the organ, with proper voicing sensitive action, and stops of high pitches.
CHORALE VARIATIONS, "Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christi" - There is no doubt that Sweelinck's Chorale Variations are intended for performance on the organ, preferably a rather large one of three Keyboards and pedal, the latter to be used for cantus firmus and organ points or as the composer instructs. In a work such as "Ebarm dich mein". Sweelinck specifies "Manualiter unndt Pedaliter" for certain variaions. In this performance, Mr. Leonhardt begins with the chorale tune played on a Sesquialter accompanied by flutes and continues it on a reed stop in the Pedal in the second variation; keeping the melody in the Pedal in the thord variation (where it is in the tenor), the work is concluded with a Plenum (stops of 8', 4', 2' pitch plus a mixture).
ECHO FANTASIA 15 - This Fantasia differs from some of Sweelinck's more frequently performed echo pieces in that it has unusually long echo phrases, and, except for the introductory section, very little polyphonic writing. Perhaps the most popular genre of Sweelinck's organ music, the Echo Fantasias appeal because of their straightforward simplicity and because they fit the organ so idiomatically. In this performance the proper effect is made possible because of an authentically reverberant acoustical environment. The dependence of such music on reverberation is important,since any antiphonal work is in part a "sound effects" piece; when performed in a "dead" building, much of its life disappears. The almost inevitable presence of three to five seconds reverberation in most European churches is a factor often overlooked in judging the success of organ music, not only of the seventeenth century, but of later music, as well.

Variations, "Est-ce Mars" - Surely intended for the harpsichord rather than the organ, not only because of the secular nature of the text, but also because of the batteries of repeated notes and falling cadential arpeggiations, "Est-cd Mars" is among the most attractive tunes set by Sweelinck. That it was a popular one can be seen from the settings by the Englishman Farnaby and by Sweelinck's student, Samuel Scheidt; but Sweelinck's jollity surpasses all the others with its humorous play on the repeated notes characteristic of the tune, the infectious "walking bass" and the incessant rhythm generated by the repetition of broken chords outlining the harmony. Its charm is heightened by unexpected shifts of tonality in the middle of Variation 7 and the never-failing device of changing to triple meter in Variation 6.
Giles Farnaby called his setting of the same tune (in the FITZWILLIAM VIRGINAL BOOK, Part II) "The New Sa-Hoo" and Nicolaes Vallet set it for four lutes. Later, Gervaert even worked the same tune into a Belgian national hymn. It is said to have been sung in England with a text beginning, "Slaves to the world should be toss'd in a blanket". Despite its cosmopolitan history, "Est-ce Mars" probably originated in France. Dpubtless, the poet remembered that "The great god Mars" was the lover of Venus, as well as the God of War:
TOCCATAS 20 and 23 - Not so "French" as some of the Toccatas of the slightly later Froberger (see CRM 509, CRS 1509 for Mr. Leonhardt's performance). Sweelinck's Toccatas suggest the fiery passage work and cadential flourishes of Frescobaldi, Froberger's teacher. Another similarity is the episodic form of these pieces and the rhythmic freedom which their performance demands. It is perhaps significant, in view of other Italian influences on Sweelinck, that the Frescobaldi works were first published during the former's lifetime (1615).
Toccata 23 differs from number 20 in that it does not possess lenghty polyphonic sections, but depends even more on idiomatic harpsichord writing and the devopment (again suggestive of Frescobaldi) of short scalar and rhythmic motifs.
VARIATIONS, "More Palatino" - Popular in the seventeenth century as a German drinking song, "More Palatino" has been recorded in various students' notebooks of the time. Since many young Hollanders went to Heidelberg to study, they must have introduced the tune and text to Amsterdam. The tune was also set by Buxtehude, and an as yet to be identified setting exists in the library at Luneburg. For Sweelinck's setting, there is only one source, which is anonymous, but unquestionably his, because of its style which is identical with that of other variations on secular tunes.
VARIATIONS, "Von der Fortuna werd' ich getrieben" - Another indication of the cross-influence between Dutch and English keyboard music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, "Von der Fortuna" was known in England as "The Hanging Tune". Ie appears in the FITWILLIAM VIRGINAL BOOK, Part I, in a setting by William Byrd: "Fortune, my foe, why dost thou frown on me?" It was also set by Samuel Scheidt, who may have learned it from Sweelinck, his teacher, although he identified it as an English melody, "Cantilena Anglica Fortunae". In the TABULATURA NOVA of 1624, Scheidt coupled Sweelinck's variations with his own. Sweelinck's treatment is notable for its expressive shifts from major to minor, a device his pupil knowingly appropriated in his own variations.
PADUANA LACHRIMAE - Yet another connection between the Lowlands and England appears in John Dowland's lute song, "Flow, my tears", which he arranged for five strings of lute in the LACHRIMAE, OR SEVEN TEARES FIGURED IN SEVEN PASSIONATE PAVANS (1905). There are also variations on this tune by Byrd and Farnaby in the FITZWILLIAM VIRGINAL BOOK, Part II. It is the basis for Sweelinck's Paduana, which he has marked "Collorirt" - perhaps to apply not only to "coloratura" running passages, but also to lute-like arpeggiations and his favored harmonic devices of cross relations (reminiscent of Byrd) and changes from minor to major tonalities. Again, Mr. Leonhardt's performance, because of its expressive freedom, causes the listener to wonder hopefully whether Sweelinck might also have been a lutenist as well as a keyboard player!