Een nieuu musyckboexken is a cycle of pieces for six recorders, cornetto, viola da gamba, crumhorns and frame drum.
The concept is modelled after the Musyckboexken ('Little Music Books') published by Tielman Susato in Antwerp in the mid-16th century, including the very long title in Renaissance Dutch.
Een nieuu musyckboexken was premiered and recorded in 2005 at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam.
Dances
The cycle alternates between four dances, five variations and a psalm.
The four dances use material from Renaissance tunes, adding ornamental and contrapuntal layers, but preserving the characteristic dance rhythms. Only the dances use crumhorns and percussion.
The five variations are built on the melodic material of a single Renaissance tune, Een venusdierken heb ic uutvercoren by Flemish composer Benedictus Appenzeller. That tune is stretched and modified until it becomes a series of complex polyphonic pieces that bear little resemblance to the Renaissance idiom.
The psalm follows the technique of the variations, but it is based on the Lutheran melody Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu Dir (Psalm 130) and features the cornetto in a lyrical solo.
