Music by Jacob Van Eyck [ examples in PDF file]

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

I have encouraged people already to look at and consider using these marvellous musical works, [in personal messages section on c.net]. Unable to attach PDF file to private messages, so opportunity to show wider audience the Van Eyck musical works [ which are so ideal when adapted for concertina].

The 17th Century Dutch musician/ composer Jacob Van Eyck; who was blind, amassed a huge collection of music, which consist of many divisions upon themes, and which suit concertinas beautifully, with their direct timeless melodies.  Intended for what we now call the 'Recorder' - they are often overlooked as being useable for other instruments,  and yet their range works very nicely for free reed family of instruments [ a couple of octaves of stave].

When I first started playing concertinas I found copies of Van Eycj music, and they instantly became some of my favourite pieces to play ever since; timeless, and enigmatic tunes, for any instrument.  The unharmonised presentation [ with them being soloist works] gve opportunity to add your own harmonies [ if you want to] .. and they are not dofficult to play; a relaxing alternative to the more academic pieces, and worthy of any collection.

I hand copied hundreds of them myself, and attach here a PDF file of just a small selection, which I keep in my collection always, and so there will be penned in tablature marks I used to use a lot in those days, [ you can ignore those pen  scribbles I am sure] however they are readable and, I hope, worth considering by all free reed musicians to add to their own collections. The PDF file is small size and here attached below this article. Let me know how you get on playing them, as  I am sure you too will want to keep using them.

music_by_Jacob_Van_Eyck selection.pdf

[usurpator]

many thanks!❤️❤️❤️❤️🙏🙏🙏🙏

[Robby-ie]

I have been playing these lately, from when you first sent them to me about a year ago! Thanks!

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

18 minutes ago, Robby said:

I have been playing these lately, from when you first sent them to me about a year ago! Thanks!

Thank you so much for the mention, Robby, it's also easy to ignore my additional pen scribbles on the pages ( which were made years ago when It HAD to use tablature at the time🌝

[jgarber760]

Thanks for these. When I was attempting to play recorder I bought the book of his tunes. I will dig into these lovely tunes and that makes me interested in looking at the library of other recorder music I have. 

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

48 minutes ago, jgarber760 said:

Thanks for these. When I was attempting to play recorder I bought the book of his tunes. I will dig into these lovely tunes and that makes me interested in looking at the library of other recorder music I have. 

I am pleased you have been inspired to look for more of these Van Eyck tunes, or similar, and particularly using recorder music is often overlooked as a source of tunes for concertinas [ I always believe].😊

[AlaskaKaren]

Thanks for posting!  There's a bunch of them on the IMSLP site, too.

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

5 hours ago, AlaskaKaren said:

Thanks for posting!  There's a bunch of them on the IMSLP site, too.

Yes, there are online publications also.

When I copied mine over there was not access to online resources at that time, and I happily copied by hand, which wax a good learning process.  🌝

[adrian brown]

 

Many of the tunes were actually of English origin and could already be considered “early music” by the time of Van Eyck's collections. For anyone wanting to know more about these tunes, I’d recommend the encyclopedic tome Jacob Van Eyck and the Others, Dutch Solo Repertoire for Recorder in the Golden Age by Thiemo Wind (his doctoral thesis).

This tune, 'Laura, the Fairest Nymph of the Valley', was also known as 'Graysin Mask' and was first found in keyboard and lute settings by several Elizabethan composers, including Orlando Gibbons. It’s also sometimes nice to simply accompany the recorder with concertina - at least it keeps them on the boil in the final variations… This project aims to record all the tunes for YouTube, so you can learn them by ear and work out your own variations. As being blind, Van Eyke had to… 

 

Adrian

 

 

 

Edited March 24 by adrian brown
link added

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

Thank you for including the video excerpt .. 

Yes, many were based upon traditional melodies of the period🌝. I have many in my collection for years now, and they suit well free reed or concertinas, instruments, and melody alone, and even harmonised if you want. 

 

Edited March 24 by SIMON GABRIELOW