Klaas Bolt
Roelof Klaas Bolt ( born March 6, 1927 in Appingedam, † April 11 1990 in Haarlem ) was a Dutch organist, improviser and organ expert. He exerted a significant influence on the organ of renovation and organ building practice in the Netherlands and to the congregational singing accompanied and was in these areas as a leading authority. Wide attention was his commitment to a slow organ accompaniment and performing vocal concerts, which were documented on recordings.
- 4.1 CDs
- 4.2 records
Life
His father was a teacher, choir director and church organist, so Klaas Bolt soon came into contact with church music. After early piano lessons, he felt more attracted by the organ. As a student of Johan van Meurs he received instruction on the Schnitger organ of the Aa - Kerk in Groningen. In 1946 he became organist at the Hervormde Kerk in Noordlaren and assistant organist at the Schnitger organ of Martinikerk in Groningen. He then studied at the Utrecht Conservatory in Utrecht, where his great talent was discovered for improvisation. He graduated from the state exam A and B and the exam for school music.
In 1952 he became organist at the Church of St. Bavo Church in Haarlem and held that post until his death. There he stood, the world-famous organ by Christian Müller available which he shared with the town organist Piet Kee. After successful application, he took a supplement improvisation lessons with his father Cor Kee. When Improvisation Competition in Haarlem Internationaal Concours Orgelimprovisatie he was in 1956 and 1957 First prize winners.
In addition to his appointment in Haarlem Klaas Bolt frequently occurred as a concert organist at home and abroad and was a professor at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam. He was still not extremely virtuoso, but devoted himself mainly of church music practice. He has given master classes in improvisation in the United States. Among his students was Masaaki Suzuki. Besides Gustav Leonhardt, he was a pioneer of historical performance practice in the Netherlands, without themselves determine to a certain style of performance. Used as one of the first Dutch organist of the 20th century Bolt historical fingerings ( without constant legato ) and Fußsätze ( without using the hoe ). His appreciation for the historic organs he was looking through he founded "Organ trips " to a wide audience to mediate and organized these trips since 1969 regularly.
Klaas Bolt was primarily a church musician who put his game in the service of the Protestant congregational singing. For this purpose he had in Haarlem founded a church choir and in 1983 performed musical vesper services during the summer months in St. Bavo. In his opinion, the organ after the choir had to judge rather than vice versa. For this reason he refused vehemently musikologisch a motivated tendency of conductors and organists who hinwirkten on fast tempos. Wide attention aroused his article De gemeentezang in een crisissituatie ( The congregational singing in a crisis ), which appeared in the monthly magazine Het organ in 1979. In it, he turned against the fast accompanying the congregational singing and led to historical, musical and psychological reasons for a slow tempo song with a more dynamic individual tones and without constant legato. Bolt argued for a return to the aesthetics and practice of Liedbegeleitung as they were represented in his opinion before 1840. To this end, he examined various treatises from the 16th to the 18th century and went into the construction and restoration of churches, on the establishment of church choirs as well as the renewal of the liturgy. Beneficial for improving congregational singing is the use of the mean tone, the move away from a strict four -part harmony in the accompaniment, a powerful and throaty singing of a large congregation in a church with an undiminished acoustics.
In the field of improvisation he was linked to Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and Anthoni van Noordt served their variations on the Genevan melodies as improvisation models him. Bolt but did not lie historicizing of the Baroque fixed, he also mastered improvising in the rococo style, the late Romantic period or the post- Hindemith - style of the 1950s. He was usually made of very fine-sounding registers which offered him the occasion for specific variations. Not rarely wore his song variations than the names of the title register.
His accompaniments were characterized on the one hand by functional simplicity and the other by a great wealth of ideas from. Characteristic of his accompaniment of congregational singing were the individual registrations for each song verse, which have brought different styles and musical forms. The first song verse was always accompanied homophonic as a simple four -part composition in the style of Claude Goudimel, the second most with the cantus firmus in the bass or tenor. Fundamental principle was to accompany not more melody notes on a harmony. With growing verse number followed by an additional upper voice, with decorated cantus firmus, with the melody in different pitches or with additional counterpoints the anticipated new melody line or imitating canonical. The underlying harmonization he played around with the passage and exchange notes and added a reconciliation between each line. He likes to transpose the final verse after about conducting modulation. He also used in the Psalms in church modes cadences with the corresponding increases and humiliations in terms of function theory. Enjoyed great popularity his concerts, where he improvised preludes to the Psalms and in his characteristic way the common singing ( nieder. " samenzang " ) accompanied them. Many of these vocal concerts were documented on recordings, initially from the record label "Disco Nederland ", which he himself had founded.
As an organ expert, he worked with the organ committee of Dutch Reformed Church and the State Agency for historic preservation. He was considered an expert on the history of historic organs and stepped firmly committed to traditional mechanical design. From dissatisfaction with the neo-baroque organs from the 1950s on the one hand and as a critic of modern, contemporary organ on the other hand, the old organs regarded as a model for the future. Approximately 200 times he appeared as an expert for organs across the country. Bolt refused extensive reconstructive restorations and sat down many times for the preservation of the grown state of an instrument one. So he became involved as a first for the reassembly of the Schnitger organ in the Der Aa - Kerk in Groningen, which had experienced no major interventions in the 20th century, in contrast to most other works Schnitger. For his contribution to the Dutch organ culture he received in 1979 the title of " Oranje Nassau Ridder ". The last instrument in which he accompanied the restoration, the Schnitger organ was in the Groningen Aa - Kerk, on which he himself had learned to play the organ. In 1990, he succumbed to cancer. 100 days before his death he married Margaret Bolt - Bartels, who was married to his first marriage with the organ builder Jürgen Ahrend. Posthumously awarded him because of its numerous merits, the Koninklijke Nederlandse Vereniging organist Honorary Membership. The Foundation " Foundation Utrecht Orgelarchief Maarten Albert Vente " manages his archive, which includes about 5,500 text documents, sketches and photos. Bolt recorded his improvisations partly in writing; these recordings are archived with Harald Vogel.
Quotes
- It has been said of Bolt's mouth was: " On new organs I do not play. "
- Through his direct style Bolt made his often unpopular. He ruled over the 1953-56 built in neo-baroque style Marcussen organ in Utrecht that has been praised by colleagues high: " The organ plays on their reserves ."