W.H. ZWART | Fantasie Psalm 25 | Müller Organ Amsterdam

00:04 Fantasie Psalm 25 - W.H. Zwart

Tim van Elderen (16) plays the famous Fantasie on (Genevan) Psalm 25 by Willem Hendrik Zwart. Play the first few bars in any church here in the Netherlands and some people start humming the rest. The piece is classic 'Hollandse Koraalstijl', a style pioneered by the father of the composer, Jan Zwart. This style is still very standard for improvisations and compositions within the Dutch Protestant tradition.

The piece consists out of three sections. The first section is a ritornello played on the Bovenwerk 8'+4', and later the 8'+4'+3', including the tremulant. The C.F melody of Psalm 25 is played on the Rugwerk Cornet, which is a wonderful solo stop. The second part is a buildup from this registration to full organ, using many modulations, sequences and appearances of the ritornello. The third part is the full chorale on full organ. In concerts, the audience would usually be asked to sing along a verse of the psalm.

One of the trademarks of Willem Hendrik's playing was the fact that he played from memory and right from the heart: no recording was every exactly the same and no recording ever did completely what the score of the piece said. I have tried to capture this spur-of-the-moment style in my performance.

Although W.H. Zwart was organist of the Bovenkerk in Kampen for a lot of his life (an organ which has before featured on the channel), I decided to record it on the organ in Amsterdam, because I like this organ better, and there is a recording of the composer himself playing this piece on this very organ. He (and many of his contemporaries like Feike Asma) registered with a lot of mixtures on this organ. For this reason I have chosen to add the Cimbel to the last, full-organ, part of the piece. According to Feike Asma, himself a student of Jan Zwart (the father of the composer), the Amsterdam organ was a 'hurricane'.

I hope you enjoy. If you do or have any questions: please leave a comment and like the video!