Just as carillon players compile their repertoire from different styles and genres, often interspersed with improvisations on folk songs, this work aims to offer organists the opportunity to include a similar moment in their programme.
It fits well in an informal afternoon concert, but I also received positive reactions to it at evening concerts. It was always the question whether anyone recognized the melody, and usually there was an older person who knew: ‘Komt vrienden in het ronde’, a song that I already liked to sing at school, perhaps especially because of the ‘jujuju’ at the end, which always gets special treatment in this piece.
The piece begins with a solo for the right hand, like a folk fiddle, played on the Cornet, which returns in the variations further on. The style is indeed traditional, aimed at recognizability. But there were already organists who particularly appreciated the slow middle section, ‘en taille’.
A video, made in a cold St. Martin in Zaltbommel: