Piet J. Groenendijk: the organ works by Kees Weggelaar

Kees Weggelaar Piet J. Groenendijk: the organ works
Het ORGEL 100 (2005), nr. 5, 14-20 [summary]

Piet J. Groenendijk (*1948) studied organ with Piet van den Kerkhoff, and, at the Rotterdam Conservatory, with Arie J. Keyzer. At the conservatory, he studied music theory as well, with Jan Kleinbussink and Ludwig Otten. Until 1992, Piet Groenendijk gave concerts. Since then, Groenendijk has become renowned for his compositions; among them are thirteen organ works. Interesting titles are Partita über den Namen Reda für Orgel (1974, with references to Messiaen), Partita over psalm 77, in memoriam Hugo Distler (1975, considerably more conservative), Symphony for organ for two to play (1989, in seven movements, based on a 12-tone series), Four meditations for organ (1995, based on the book of Ecclesiastes; with references to Alain). Groenendijk’s most recent composition is Chacony, inspired by the dodecaphony in his Six short Pieces for piano.
Recently a cd was published with music by Piet Groenendijk, played by Gottfried Sembdner and Christoph Mehner on the Holtgräve organ in the Grote Kerk at Deventer and Jos van der Kooy on the Müller organ in the Bavokerk at Haarlem.