The concert Ode to the Classics presents contemporary compositions that are firmly rooted in the tradition of classical music and have been specially written for the Fokker organ. The programme includes several new works with microtonal sonorities that sound both familiar and surprising at the same time. Neo-baroque, romantic and early twentieth-century styles are interwoven with the microtonal possibilities of the Fokker organ, allowing the audience to experience a rich palette of harmonies and contrapuntal structures. The programme shows how microtonal compositions and classical styles can meet, how old traditions find new forms, and how the Fokker organ, with its unique 31-tone tuning, forms a source of inspiration for both established and emerging composers. Flautist Raymond Honing, who is highly experienced in performing microtones, once again joins resident organist Ere Lievonen in this remarkable concert.

The opening work by Clive So marks the beginning of this musical adventure. So combines his classical organ training with a strong curiosity about microtonal possibilities. His Courante from 2019 demonstrates how, using the 31-tone system, he creates a coherent harmonic world inspired by the classical tradition yet entirely free from conventional boundaries. His studies in counterpoint and harmonic experimentation result in a work that brings out the unique possibilities of the Fokker organ to full effect.
The programme continues with Piers Hudson’s Gigue from his Suite in 31edo for Fokker organ (2020). Hudson, who originates from the United Kingdom and specialises in counterpoint, describes this movement from his suite as a ‘microtonal neo-baroque dance suite for Fokker organ’, in which subtle elements of minimal music can also be discerned. His work combines harmonic and contrapuntal elements and shows how complex polyphony can be realised on the Fokker organ in a microtonal context.
The French composer Charles Delusse wrote a short and curious work in the middle of the eighteenth century in which enharmonic notes are chromatically displayed by the flute, entitled Air à la Grecque. This composition appears to be an ode to the classics, but in reality it dates from the period of French classicism. Delusse was an important figure in the history of the flute in mid-eighteenth-century Paris. In 1760/61 he published ‘L’art de la flute traversiere’, an extensive treatise containing new ideas such as overtones, microtones and tonguing techniques that were previously unknown.
The initiator and designer of the 31-tone organ named after him, Adriaan Fokker, wrote short compositions under the pseudonym Arie de Klein in order to demonstrate this remarkable instrument. These were often given titles referring to classical music, such as his Toccata from 1957, which is included in this morning’s programme.
This is followed by Michiel Mensingh’s The Bad-Tempered Clavier from 2010, a playful parody of the famous chromatic theme from the Fugue in D minor (BWV 875) from Book II of Das Wohltemperierte Klavier (1740–1742) by Johann Sebastian Bach. In this work, the Amsterdam-based Mensingh allows a well-known Bach theme to derail in a mischievous manner, after which it continues on its own path through modern, techno-like sounds. The result is a mix of humour, musical inventiveness and respect for the classical tradition, with the Fokker organ being fully controlled by laptop.
As a sequel to Mensingh’s composition, the concert also includes a special historical moment with the brilliant unfinished fugue Contrapunctus 14 from Die Kunst der Fuge (1740–1746) by Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach’s famous contrapuntal material, after a brief silence, receives a modern classical continuation in the 31-tone system with Halluzination im Anschluß an Bachs unvollendete Fuge (2024) by composer Sander Germanus, in which the organ, like a hallucination, automatically begins to play on and leaves the organist ‘astonished’. In this way, a bridge is built between the classical past and the microtonal experiments of modern times, with the listener recognising the contours of Bach while at the same time experiencing a new harmonic dimension via all 31 fifth tones in less than a minute, ending, like Bach, in D major.
The Passacaglia by the Canadian composer John L. Baker from 2020, inspired by a classical form, has never been performed before. Unlike the other works, this piece is not tonal, but it is carefully written for the twelve notes of meantone tuning, with septimal intervals and clear, ‘classical’ polyphony. This premiere forms a restrained moment within the programme.
This is followed by the seven-movement organ suite from Ode to Andreas Werckmeister (2018) by Gerard van de Meerakker. Van de Meerakker, a retired physician with a profound fascination for historical tunings, combines his ideas about Werckmeister’s ‘well-tempered’ tunings with a literary inclination. The original composition follows a poem by the famous German organ builder Arp Schnitger (1648–1719), in which he honors the equally famous music theorist and organist Andreas Werckmeister (1645-1706). In this version on the 31-tone organ, the composition unfolds through a series of fugal passages towards a grand and chaotic conclusion, resulting in a hymn of praise to Werckmeister himself.
The programme concludes with a cunning little work by the American keyboardist, composer and musician Aaron Krister Johnson, who has devoted himself to promoting music in alternative tunings. His The Juggler (2003) for harpsichord and flute breathes a neo-medievalist atmosphere and explores the 19-tone system with striking modulations that continually stimulate the ear. Although an electronic version of this work has been known for some time, the acoustic performance for harpsichord and flute was not premiered until 2019 in the Kleine Zaal of the Muziekgebouw.
All the works in this programme together form a balanced journey through past and present, in which the Fokker organ demonstrates how classical forms and microtonal sound worlds can naturally enrich one another.

For the Fokker organ, the retro-futuristic ensemble gamut inc is developing a new composition in which the pipe organ is approached as an acoustic synthesiser as well as a sampler. This full-length concert programme consists of original works, specially written for the microtonal 31-tone organ. Thanks to the close approximation of just tuning offered by the organ, the instrument opens up a sound world that recalls the early days of electronic music, as developed in the studios of Cologne and Warsaw in the 1950s.
That the organ can be regarded as a form of additive synthesiser has long been recognised: organ pipes with different timbres are combined to create complex sound mixtures. But gamut inc take this a step further. Inspired by the phonorealistic concepts of Peter Ablinger, they investigate how audio data can be converted into overtone structures. In this process, the organ functions not only as a synthesiser but also as a sampler, in which sounds are reproduced and transformed using additive and subtractive techniques. By making use of the microtonal gradations of the 31-tone steps, resynthesis techniques emerge, along with complex beating phenomena, spectral interferences and slowly shifting harmonic fields, built up from precisely tuned layers of chords.
The duo gamut inc was founded in Berlin in 2013 by Marion Wörle (computer musician, graphic designer and composer) and Maciej Śledziecki (composer and guitarist). Together they develop electroacoustic music, innovative music theatre and computer-controlled musical machines. Since 2019 they have been working intensively with computer-controlled pipe organs, travelling worldwide to realise new compositions for so-called ‘hyper-organs’ in churches and concert halls. In 2021 they also initiated their own festival, AGGREGATE, devoted to computer-controlled organ and electronics, for which they invited international guest composers.
In this concert, Wörle and Śledziecki focus on the Amsterdam Fokker organ, which since its renovation in 2008–2009 has been equipped with a MIDI interface and was identified in a Harvard study in 2008 as one of the first hyper-organs in the world. MIDI technology, developed in the 1980s, makes it possible to control the organ via computer, with algorithmic composition software offering an intuitive and flexible way of composing. Thousands of notes and parameters can be generated and manipulated in real time, while the sound is still produced physically in the acoustic organ pipes.
With its nineteen additional tones within the octave, the 31-tone organ creates new technical and sonic possibilities, including the refined creation and manipulation of overtone structures. In their compositions, Wörle and Śledziecki explore stylistic means that are only possible thanks to programmability and computer control: automated registration changes, simultaneous tempi, shimmering masses of sound, complex polyrhythms, fluttering sound patterns and sliding transitions between tonal, noise-based and rhythmic material. The pipe organ is deployed here as a sound machine and acoustic synthesiser. The result is an organic, futuristic organ sound that reinvents the familiar instrument and gives it a radically contemporary voice.

In addition to our new website, the Huygens-Fokker Foundation has an extensive online archive, which largely consists of the contents of the former website that had been online since 2008. Although the design of this old website is now somewhat dated, it contains a wealth of information about microtonal music and alternative tunings. For that reason, this online archive remains an essential part of the information resources of the Huygens-Fokker Foundation. The archive serves as a valuable reference work for anyone wishing to explore the theoretical background of microtonality. Those who wish to delve deeper into this subject will find here a rich collection of substantive contributions in the form of articles on tunings and microtonal music. Unlike the online archive, the new website of the foundation is primarily aimed at the current audience of our Fokker organ concerts, including a clear events calendar, information for collaborative partners, and concise introductions to various tone systems for music professionals who are still orienting themselves in this fascinating musical field. The combination with the content of our old website enables us to preserve articles from the past and to keep them accessible in the future. >Visit the online archive here.<.