Trio 'Zingt, gij afgelegen landen'

Adriaan Cornelius Schuurman (1904 - 1998) was a Dutch organist and composer. He is well known for his many compositions on Genevan Psalms and (Dutch) hymns. He also wrote hymns and Psalm melodies himself for the Dutch Liedboek. Therefore he was very important for the church music in The Netherlands after World War II. It's not easy to describe his composition style, but the piece I recorded here isn't typical for Schuurman, to say the least.

This trio is a good example how to compose a trio. In this trio Schuurman uses double counterpoint. The first time we hear the cantus firmus as upper voice, the second time as tenor voice. He played it in 1937, and it's notated in 1985 on request of Schuurman's friend Jan J. van den Berg.

The hymn 'Zingt, gij afgelegen landen' is a free arrangement by Jan Scharp on the hymn by Isaac Watts 'Sing to the Lord, ye distant lands'. The tune is based on the hymn 'Komm, o komm, du Geist des Lebens' by Johann Christoph Bach.

Since this piece has everything you want of a good baroque trio, the sample set of the Holy Trinity organ of Ottobeuren was the logical choice.