Psalm 118

Listening to uploads of Dutch organists on Contrebombarde, especially those of psalm preludes, the impression could arise, that Dutch organ playing was and is very much influenced by the romantic style of organists like Jan Zwart and Feike Asma, van Tilburg etc.

They certainly still have a big influence , especially among amateur-organists and the more conservative Dutch Christian population.
There even are contemporary composers writing in that romantic idiom.

In professional circles there has been a different development. Those who studied the organ at the Dutch conservatoria, populated by the best Dutch organ teachers, mostly developed a different kind of style, more along the lines of the contemporary German composers like Micheelsen, Distler and Pepping and French composers Tournemire, Langlais and Durufle.

In the seventies bundles were published with preludes to the new Liedboek 1973, composed by leading contemporary Dutch composers. I intend to do a small series on preludes and harmonizations of the psalms.

Cor Kee (1900-1997):
was a pupil of Jan Zwart, except for a year when he did a special training at the Amsterdam Conservatory with Jean-Baptiste de Pauw, the senior organ teacher.

Kee was the senior organ teacher at the Utrecht Conservatorium for a long time. He also was the permanent improvisation teacher at the international summer academy in Haarlem, which was held each year at that time for pupils from all over the world.

The level of his pupils was always exceptionally high: some of them won the Organ Improvisation Concours in Haarlem.

He was also well-known as a composer and wrote many organ compositions for church and concert use.