
J.v.Eyck       "Der Fluyten Lusthof"     Holland, 17th century


J.J. van Eyck - General Info

The Netherlands, 17th century, Golden Age--- Jacob van Eyck was
born around 1590 of good family. He was blind, but had an
extremely sharp musical ear, and was talented. He played the
carillon in the Utrecht Dom Cathedral from 1625-1657, and was
director of all the bells and chimes in that city. He was also
an expert bell tuner, and developed a tuning method which is
still in use today. His tunes can still be heard everyday on
carillons today! He was also very good in playing the RECORDER,
as a matter of fact he was *so good*, that the city council
raised his salary in 1648, on the condition that he played his
flute in the St.Jans churchground to amuse the pedestrians
there. The curchground was in fact a city park, and a popular
spot for lovers and artists. In the evening it was a place to
see and be seen. There were also lute players and poets etc...
very cultural and 'en vogue'. As he was playing for his own fun
there since 1638. The raise in salary was merely a recognition
of a service he already provided for 10 years.

Jacob van Eyck's improvisations on popular tunes of that time
were published in 1646, known as 'Der Fluyten Lusthof' ('The
flute's pleasure-garden'). It contains three volumes. The tunes
are heavily influenced from music from other europian countries:
england, italy, france and germany.  Every tune (all for solo
recorder) starts with the basic, un-embellished melody, which
lays out the basic structure of the song. After that, the tune
continues with variations on the theme. Every variation gets
more difficult, first with eight-notes, then with sixteenth-
notes, and then greater leaps and melodic variation.  It's not
easy material.


About the J.van Eyck tunes in the Classical Midi Archive

I copied the tunes in a music notation program using my mouse.
So, all notes sound as notated. v.Eyck did not indicate musical
phrasing at all... musical interpretation is entirely left to
the player. If you listen to CD's from contemporary recorder
players which play v.Eyck's oevre, you'll notice that they give
very free interpretations to the material. This is the way it
should be done. Let the midi files only be a starting point; use
your own musical taste to make it sound how it's was meant.

I've submitted only a few tunes (there are over 150), because
I'm still learning the recorder, and I only enter the tunes
which I want to practice. My soundcanvas is a big help with
this. As time goes by, I might submit more songs.  v.Eyck is
definately one of my recorder favourites. 
The tunes are available either in Passport's Muziktime format
(.MUS) as well as in General MIDI (.MID). The Muziktime format
contains text, repeating marks, variation marks, and can be
nicely printed. The MID files can be played by everyone who can
play midi-files and are very portable. Any information on the
songs itself I have placed in the corresponding General MIDI
file, in the track name fields.  Enjoy!

Michiel Overtoom     motoom@xs4all.nl 
