The Canon of Sweelinck's Keyboard Music

Sweelinck's keyboard music has a complicated publication history. After the publication of seven keyboard pieces by Robert Eitner in 1870 followed no fewer than five complete editions, edited by Max Seiffert (1894 and 1943), Gustav Leonhard, Alfons Annegarn and Frits Noske (1968), Siegbert Rampe (2003-2010) and Harald Vogel and Pieter Dirksen (2004-2008). These editions all differ in content and the number of pieces included. So what is really the corpus of Sweelinck's keyboard compositions? No autograph manuscripts nor authorized editions or manuscript copies are available. Problems arise when compositions are transmitted under Sweelinck's name but not considered to be composed by him, or when compositions that we consider to composed by him are transmitted under another composer's name or anonymously. All the editions mentioned deal differently with these problems. Their methods are investigated and a protocol is provided that gives, under the circumstances of the moment, the best defendable solution for establishing the canon of Sweelinck's keyboard music.