SWEELINCK, JAN PIETERSZOON

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, the widely acclaimed organist of Amsterdam's Oude Kerk (Old Church), was a gifted composer of keyboard and vocal music as well as one of the most renowned and influential teachers of his day. Born in Deventer, Netherlands, Sweelinck grew up in a musical family. His grand­father, uncle, and father were all organists. His father preceded him in the post at Oude Kerk, and his son, Dirck, succeeded him there in 1621. Records show that Sweelinck held this position from 1580 to 1621, but it is possible that he began work there as early as 1577. Sweelinck's reputation as a teacher attracted many pupils to Amsterdam. Students from Germany, such as Samuel Scheidt, Jacob Praetorius, and Heinrich Scheidemann, went on to found the great North German organ school, which ultimately culminated in the music of J.S. Bach.

As a composer of vocal music, Sweelinck set sacred and secular texts and drew from both Protestant and Catholic traditions. HisRimes françoises et italiennes(1612) is a secular collection of French chansons and Italian madrigals. HisCantiones sacrae(1619) is a set of motets based upon the Catholic liturgy. Perhaps his most monumental achievement and life's work is his setting of the entire Psalter using French metrical psalms.

Sweelinck's keyboard music includes variations, toccatas, and fantasias. The technically difficult toccatas often seem to have a pedagogical purpose. The fantasias, which frequently employ fugal elaboration of a single theme, led to the development of the monothematic fugue and had a profound impact on the music of Bach. Because of his magnificent keyboard improvisations, Sweelinck was known during his day as the "Orpheus of Amsterdam," but his influence as a composer and teacher carried far beyond his own city and time to shape the finest musical developments of the late baroque.

K. Tollefsen, "Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck," in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie, vol. 18, 1980: 406-13.