Herman van Vliet’s credo by Kees Huges

by Kees Huges | Het ORGEL | Year 97 | (2001) | Issue 3

Kees Huges Herman van Vliet’s credo
Het ORGEL 97 (2001), nr. 3, 41-43 [summary]

hermanvanvliet.jpg (20307 bytes)Organist Hermanvan Vliet celebrated his 40th year as organist on 1 April 2001. He was a pupil of Stoffelvan Viegen, Cor Kee and Feike Asma. He attended master classes of Jean Guillou. Van Vlietwas organist at Bodegraven, Woerden and Oudewater. In 1990 he was appointed organist ofthe St.-Joriskerk at Amersfoort.

Herman van Vliet warns us not to go too far in our admiration of Jan Zwart (thelegendary teacher of Kee and Asma): ‘Of course Zwart’s music had its negativeaspects. Imitating Zwart’s musing as in ‘Scheepje onder Jezus hoede’implies going astray.’ Total rejection of Zwart and Asma is also, according to VanVliet, an undesirable extreme. ‘They did more than just playing and improvisingchorale preludes – and even that can be done in an artistically proper way.’

When studying a composition, Van Vliet studies musicological sources, but he stilldevelops his own interpretation: ‘In the end my feeling determines the eventualform.’