Its Style, Significance and Influence
Utrecht: Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse
Muziekgeschiedenis, 1996 (Muziekhistorische Monografieën XV)
713 pages
Awarded the Dutch PRAEMIUM ERASMIANUM 1997
Contents:
Foreword
Acknowledgements
List of Tables
List of Plates
1. The Sources
1.1 The Transmittance of Sweelinck's Keyboard Music
1.2 The Sources (Sammelhandschriften - Gebrauchshandschriften - Retrospective Sources)
2. Toccatas
2.1 Background (The Venetian Toccata - The Concept)
2.2 Toccatas with a Central Imitative Section
2.3 Toccatas without a Central Imitative Section (Toccatas in g - Toccatas in G - Toccatas in C - Three-Part Toccatas)
2.4 Historical Perspectives (The Toccata in the Netherlands - The Toccatas of Sweelinck's German Pupils)
3. Variations
3.1 Background
3.2 Sacred Cycles (Variations on Chant Melodies - Variations on Melodies from the Genevan Psalter - Variations on Lutheran Chorales)
3.3 Secular Cycles (Sweelinck and Scheidt (i): Combined Cycles - Sweelinck and Scheidt (ii): Problems of Authenticity - Two Further Problems of Authenticity - Variations on `Almande' Melodies - Variations on `Aria' Melodies - Two Arrangements of English Pavans)
3.4 Historical Perspectives (The Variation in the Netherlands - Aspects of the Variation in the Work of Sweelinck's German Pupils)
4. Fantasias
4.1 Background (Form, Technique and Idea - Sweelinck's Concept of `Fantasia')
4.2 Monothematic Fantasias (Ostinato Fantasias - Chromatic Fantasias - Hexachord Fantasias - Fantasia d2 and Ricercare a1 - Questions of Authenticity: the Turin Works
4.3 `Echo' Fantasias (Fantasias in d - Fantasias in C and a)
4.4 Historical Perspectives (Compatriates and Contemporaries - The Fantasia and Sweelinck's German Pupils)
5. Chronological Aspects
5.1 Introduction
5.2 The Primary Evidence
5.3 Points of Style
5.4 The Melodies of the Variations
5.5 The Mirror of Sweelinck's German Pupils
5.6 Modality and Other Compositional Details
5.7 Once More: The Sources
5.8 Some Tentative Conclusions
6. Idiomatic Aspects
6.1 Sweelinck's Keyboard Polyphony (General Aspects - Vocal Polyphony versus Keyboard Polyphony – Figuration – Genre – Variation in the Number of Voices – Style and Notation)
6.2 Instrumental Designation (The Compass of Sweelinck's Organs - Organ versus Harpsichord in Relation to Compass – The Occurrence of the D-Sharp – A Tentative Division)
6.3 Sweelinck and the `Monodic' Organ Style (The Extent of the `Monodic' Element in the Organ Music – The Relationship with the Southern Netherlands)
6.4 Conclusion: The Question of Sweelinck's Influence
Appendices
1. Sweelinck's Organs and Registration Practice
2. Catalogue of Works
3. The Sources: Overview and Inventories
4. A Checklist of the Keyboard Music of Peter Philips
Bibliography
Index of Sweelinck's Works
General Index
From the Reviews:
"Ronduit een meesterwerk."
(Ewald Kooiman [1938-2009], zie De Orgelvriend, Maart 2009)
"This book is well organized and attractively presented, with copious musical examples and tables. [...] Dirksen presents clear arguments with conviction, conveying an enthusiasm for his subject. This is a work of sound scholarship, yet at the same time it is very readable. Dirksen has made a substantial contribution not only to research on Sweelinck, but also to the understanding of keyboard music of the late 16th and 17th centuries in general. It is essential and stimulating reading for all scholars and performers of early keyboard music."
(David J. Smith in Early Music)
"La clarté des demonstrations, l'évidence de leurs conclusions est telle que l'on se demande presque toujours comment il est possible que personne n'y ait pensé plus tôt. [...] Ceci est un livre magistral."
(Jean Ferrard in Magazine Orgue)
"Die grosse, umfassende Monographie, die immer noch ausstand, legt Pieter Dirksen nun vor. Man muss sie in mehrfacher Hinsicht als mustergültig bezeichnen: Die Gliederung des umfangreichen Werkes ist ebenso einfach wie überzeugend, die Beherrschung des Stoffes gleichermassen souverän im Überblick wie im Detail, die sprachliche Diktion verbindet Klarheit mit hochgradiger Differenzierung. [...]
Jedes einzelne Werk wird einer ausführlichen Analyse unterzogen und in seinen gattungsgeschichtlichen Kontext eingeordnet, wodurch der vergleichsweise hohe Grad an individueller Profilierung, den Sweelinck in vielen seiner Werke erreicht, angemessen zur Geltung gebracht wird. [...]
Die vorliegende Monographie, die auf längere Sicht ein autoritatives Standardwerk zu werden verspricht, könnte, indem sie neben akribischer Genauigkeit und zuverlässig resümierender Faktenfülle einen durchgängig offenen Diskurs darstellt, der noch mehr Fragen aufwirft als er beantwortet, in die Erforschung der älteren Tastenmusik ein erhebliches Mass an produktiver Beunruhigung einbringen."
(Arnfried Edler in Die Musikforschung)
