Despite the popularity of Bach and Messiaen, despite the rich Dutch organ literature from Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck right up to Peter-Jan Wagemans, organ music hovers on the fringe of the music world. The International Organ Festival encourages the preservation and revitalisation of a tradition with contemporary and new Dutch compositions. 

The paradox: as strongly as the organ has been embedded in the national music culture since Sweelinck, so marginal does the role of the instrument in Dutch 20th-century music appear to be. The music establishment had a somewhat prejudiced attitude towards the instrument. Peter Schat looked back at his one and only organ piece, Passacaglia and Fugue Op. 1 with friendly disdain (‘a respectable Christian piece’). Tristan Keuris almost choked when the Concertgebouw asked him to write an organ concerto. He, compose for ‘God’s own accordion’? Luckily he changed his mind, and how! His Organ Concerto (1992-1993) is a masterpiece.

To the major 20th-century composers the organ was of no great importance, as their oeuvres show. Louis Andriessen, the son of an organist, prefers barrel organs and hammond organs to his father’s instrument. Otto Ketting stopped after a Concerto per organo (1953). Ton de Leeuw came no further than an Introduzione e Passacaglia (1949), a Ricercare (1952) and the Sweelinck Variations (1972/1973). Matthijs Vermeulen and Willem Pijper, Jan van Vlijmen and Theo Loevendie ignored the instrument. Hans Kox (1930) did keep up writing for the organ, his most recent organ work being Sonata da Chiesa (2003) for violin and organ. Like his teacher Henk Badings (1907-1987), who contributed two organ concertos and a series of organ works, he also wrote for the 31-tone organ.

For ‘regular’ composers the organ is often unknown territory

But then, Kox was an organist himself. This seems to be a prerequisite for having the capacity and wanting to write for the organ, which makes sense. For ‘regular’ composers the organ is often unknown territory, and more than any other instrument the ‘king of instruments’ is connected to its church and liturgy environment. The most important Dutch organ music was written by composers with a thorough knowledge of the instrument and the almost inevitable religious background. Sadly, fate has ordained that their worldly organ works are often condemned to the religious context as well; the handful of concert organs in major concert halls are not played very intensively. Thus the organist and his work often remains contained within the boundaries of their territory. This applies not only to Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1561-1621), who was city organist at the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam all his life, but also to his 20th-century descendants. The chamber music and orchestral works by Hendrik Andriessen (1892-1981), father of Louis, are most likely better known than his exceptional organ works, including Theme and Variations and the virtuoso Toccata from 1917.