SWEELINCK

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (May, 1562 – October 16, 1621) is indisputably the greatest Dutch composer and one who made an outstandingly significant contribution to the subsequent development of Western music. He spent most of his life in Amsterdam, as the organist of the Rude Kirk, a post which he held for over 40 years. As the teacher of most of the great North German school of organists he was of immense influence and indeed it is for his keyboard compositions that he has primarily been known. His vocal works, which include a complete setting of the Geneva Psalter, a volume of Latin motets and a number of particularly attractive madrigals and chansons, have been largely neglected. (from the back cover of Sweelinck, by Frits Noske, Oxford University Press, 1988)