The blind Dutch recorder-player Jacob van Eyck (1589/90 - 1657) was engaged as a carillonneur, first in his hometown Heusden and later in Utrecht. He was apparently a great master on carillons; he had several students, he looked after a number of carillons and church bells in Utrecht.
As a composer van Eyck left us a collection of music called "Der Fluiten Lusthof" for unaccompanied soprano-recorder. Nearly all of the 144 pieces are variations on the popular melodies of that time. Besides folksongs, he used the more popular themes by current composers of his time and church melodies from the Geneva Psalter.
Style: Renaissance, Classical, Crossover, Folk
Cultural Roots: Netherland, 16th +17th Cent.
Instruments: English Handbells, Flutes and Electronics
On this CD we have just single melodies. Music written for solo instruments - even for the ones on which one cannot play chords - was not scarce in the 17th century. Yet, the music that was written down was nevertheless an improvisation. When considering "authentic" interpretation, one may even present a rhetorical question; whether van Eyck himself had ever played these variation-cycles as exactly as they were written down.
After studying van Eyck's collection and in view of the performance practices of that time, the musicians on this current CD have been inspired to interpret the composer's text very freely.
The flutist Neeme Punder improvises on the variations by Jacob van Eyck in quite the same way as van Eyck himself improvised on folk melodies. In the last stage, the improvisations performed by Neeme Punder provided the basis for the electronic arrangements by Peeter Vähi.
Neeme Punder (b. 1958) studied classical flute at the Estonian Academy of Music in Tallinn, and for a long time is a leading soloist in the early music ensemble Hortus Musicus, playing recorders, baroque transverse flute and other older wind instruments. He has also studied baroque flute in the Netherlands and in Germany.
