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(contributed by Dirk Jaehner <jaehner
muenster.de>)
Some Informations about his musical works. His life itself isn’t very interesting, because he never left Amsterdam where he was organist at the Oude Kerk, probably from 1577, but until the end of his life. He is well known as a teacher an composer for organists, but it’s funny that none of his organ works were published in his lifetime. The organ works survived only in copies by his pupils. Nevertheless they are the most known musical works of Sweelinck. Just the opposite goes for the vocal compositions. A great part of them were printed, but today most of them are unknown. His major work was the composition of the so called Geneva Psalter. Published in four volumes (from 1603 to 1621, the last after his death) it contains 153 psalms in the french version of the Geneva Psalter. (By the way, this psalter is the reason of my search for information about Sweelinck.) He also composed chansons and madrigals, most part printed, but forgotten today. In fact, it’s rather impossible to get any new edition of the Psalter except the General edition.