Jacob van Eyck

Jacob van Eyck (b ?Heusden, nr 's-Hertogenbosch, 1589/90; d Utrecht, 26 March 1657). Dutch carillonneur, bell expert, recorder player and composer.

He inherited the noble title of ‘joncker’, and was blind. He spent his early years in Heusden, and in 1623 visited Utrecht, where he was appointed carillonneur of the Domkerk in 1625. Three years later he became director of the Utrecht bellworks, having technical supervision of all the parish-church bells. Later he also became carillonneur of the Janskerk, the Jacobikerk and the city hall. It was he who discovered the connection between a bell's shape and its overtone structure, which enabled bells to be tuned properly. In this he had the cooperation of the famous bellfounders François and Pieter Hemony. His work gained the attention of such prominent intellectuals as Isaac Beeckman (1588–1637), René Descartes and Constantijn Huygens (a distant relative, and dedicatee of van Eyck's Der Fluyten Lust-hof). He was charged with carillon improvements all over the northern Netherlands and had several pupils.

In 1649 his salary at the Janskerk was increased, ‘provided that he would now and then in the evening entertain the people strolling in the churchyard with the sound of his little flute’, a practice that was first mentioned in a poem of 1640. His two-volume Der Fluyten Lust-hof, which was reprinted several times, contains almost 150 pieces for solo soprano recorder in C. The original prints contain many errors, mainly due to van Eyck's blindness. A few of the pieces are free compositions (preludes and fantasias), but the majority consist of variations on melodies popular at the time. Although most of these melodies have Dutch titles, many originate from the French air de cour repertory, and some are Italian (from Giulio Caccini, Gastoldi), English (Dowland), German and Dutch; 16 were borrowed from the Genevan Psalter. The process of composing variations was called ‘breecken’ (breaking): the notes of a theme were broken into notes of smaller values, each reprise becoming increasingly elaborate. Although van Eyck's ornamental style shows many features of Italian improvised passaggi, his pieces are to be considered as true compositions. Der Fluyten Lust-hof, i (1649) includes five duets that make use of some of the monophonic variations; these arrangements are not by van Eyck and can be attributed to his publisher Paulus Matthysz.