Learn to Play Recorder

Lesson 71: Van Eyck Variations, Part 1 — Doen Daphne

  • Play the theme and first three variations of van Eyck's Doen Daphne d'Over Schoone Maeght.
  • Hear the variation set as a single arc with rising rhythmic density, not as four separate pieces.

Van Eyck spent thirty years on the steps of the Janskerk. He wrote the only really substantial body of solo recorder music we have. Read it carefully.

Van Eyck's Der Fluyten Lust-hof is the only substantial body of unaccompanied solo recorder music from the Baroque era. Doen Daphne is one of its best-known pieces: a theme followed by four variations of increasing density. This lesson takes the theme and the first three variations.

The theme

Read the theme at quarter = 80; every variation is a different way of decorating these same notes.

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Variation 1 — eighth-note diminution

Each quarter of the theme becomes two eighths — the basic division technique; the melodic skeleton stays audible beneath the new surface.

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Practise it slow — the theme's pulse multiplied by two, not a new piece.

Variation 2 — sixteenth-note running

Sixteenths replace eighths — four notes per beat, the skeleton still underneath.

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Double-tongue it; single tonguing at variation tempo is a losing battle.

Variation 3 — ornament density

The third variation increases ornamental density, not rhythmic: trills, mordents, turns, short scales between melody notes. Van Eyck writes the ornaments out — read the score; do not add more.

The variation set as an arc

  • Theme — pulse only, no decoration.
  • Variation 1 — doubled rhythmic density.
  • Variation 2 — quadrupled rhythmic density.
  • Variation 3 — same pulse as V1, but ornament density.

Practise the transitions between variations as carefully as the variations themselves.

Practice plan

Week 1 — theme and Variation 1, separately
Each as its own short piece at quarter = 80.
Week 2 — Variation 2
Slow practice, double-tongued; hardest-bar procedure for the densest two bars.
Week 3 — Variation 3 and the complete arc
Variation 3 alone, then all four sections end-to-end with four to six beats of silence between.

Now play these

Van Eyck: Doen Daphne d'Over Schoone Maeght
The piece of this lesson, through Variation 3.
Van Eyck: Amarilli Mia Bella
A slower, more lyrical example of the same procedure.

When a listener could identify each variation of Doen Daphne by ear, move on to Lesson 72.