Fifty years ago, on 24 September 1972, Adriaan Fokker, professor of physics at Leiden University and the intellectual father of the organ with not the usual twelve but thirty-one tones per octave, passed away. His enthusiasm for the 31-tone tuning developed by Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695) inspired countless composers, music theorists, and scientists in the Netherlands and beyond during the 1950s. Ere Lievonen, the current principal organist of the Fokker organ, pays homage in this concert to Adriaan Fokker and the 31-tone movement he initiated.
The programme features 31-tone works by three Dutch composers from the 1950s. Anthon van der Horst had a keen interest in organ building and contemporary experiments in acoustics and the physics of music, which naturally drew him to the ideas of Adriaan Fokker and his 31-tone organ. In 1953 he composed the Suite for 31-tone organ, opus 60, which he dedicated to Fokker. Jan van Dijk followed Fokker’s fascination with the 31-tone system from the start and was one of the first composers to write works for the 31-tone organ. Paul Christiaan van Westering, the composer of Dikkertje Dap, was the first performer of the Fokker organ when it was still housed in the Teylers Museum in Haarlem. In 1960 he welcomed the young Pierre Boulez, who had travelled to Haarlem specifically for the organ. Even Nina Simone was astonished by the pure minor thirds she knew from the blues but could not play on the piano due to the limitations of equal temperament. Van Westering composed several pieces for the instrument and in 1952 wrote a method book.
The programme also naturally includes a work by Fokker himself, who as an amateur composer left behind a modest oeuvre to promote his instrument, namely Bagatelle “Chinees” (1951), which premiered in 1957 as Bagatella, Chineseria by organist Piet Halsema. Preceding this is a work inspired by Fokker’s composition, performed by Fokker organist Lievonen. Altogether, this concert offers a splendid tribute to the man to whom we owe the 31-tone organ.