Jacob van Eyck: Wat Zalmen op den Avond Doen

Wat Zalmen op den Avond Doen ["What shall we do in the evening?"] is the most exensive set of variations in "Der Fluyten Lust-hof," ["The Flute's Pleasure-garden"] the magnum opus of seventeenth century blind carillon and recorder player Jacob van Eyck (ca. 1589-1657). FLH was published in Amsterdam by Paulus Matthysz in several editions (the first edition was known as "Euterpe oft Speel-goddinne" ("Euterpe, or the goddess of [music] playing") in the middle of the seventeenth century. As its title page states, FLH is a compendium of "psalms, pavanes, allemandes, courantes, ballets, airs, etc." for solo recorder. van Eyck was carillonneur for both the Dom and the city, and keeper of the carillons in Utrecht; he received an additional stipend from the city to play music like that in FLH on his "little flute" (recorder) for townspeople as they promenaded in the park beside the St. Janskerk. He became famous throughout Europe both for his profound knowledge of bell acoustics, and for his recorder and carillon playing.

In his poem "Hofwijck" (1651) about his country home of the same name near Den Haag, Constantijn Huyghens (the dedicatee of FLH and van Eyck's distant cousin) writes of singing "Wat sal men op den Avond Doen" with friends as they departed for home in the evening.

I am playing on my copy of an early seventeenth century soprano recorder from the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Thank you for listening!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• van
• Eyck
• recorder
• blockfluit
• variations
• diminutions
• passaggi
• baroque
• carillon
• Utrecht

[recorderson]

Wonderful as usual ! Great sound & performance. Compliments, Mr. Turner

[iufiauto]

It's my pleasure! I'm glad you're enjoying them!

[GoBlueFinland]

I'm learning to play this, and so far I am having problems in the first three seconds.

[fiauto]

Thanks! Orthography is funny--that mistake is repeated seven times on six successive pages in the original print, even though "zal men" is clearly what is intended.

[Yumypop]

There is a mistake in the name of the song, there's suposed to be a space between the l and the m in zalmen, so it's Wat zal men op den avond doen. Zalmen actually means salmon XD.

[brandomo511]

i am in desperate need of any sheet music within the next day, of van eyck. can anybody help?

[josesuarezegas]

Me gusta, aunque se toma ciertas libertades con los tiempos y los adornos.

[nina2kY]

beautiful playing :)

[fiauto]

@hugleberthumperdink Sorry to have been tetchy - and thank you for the compliment!

[hugleberthumperdink]

My dear fiauto, I believe there has been a mix up here, one which is very possibly highly flattering. When writing that comment, I thought this was Dan Laurin's version of the piece, as in it was Dan Laurin playing, due to how similar in timbre and technical ability your version is. I especially like your use of flattement.

[fiauto]

Here, some of the variations are combined (i.e. ACBD instead of AABB, CCDD, etc.) and as a result Dan's performance runs ca. two minutes longer. Sorry this is not so "entertaining" as some - my sole interest and goal here was to express some great, lyric driven music.

[mango2005]

Were any of these tunes played on the battlefield? I am looking for historical Dutch flute marches.