Toccata over Psalm 33

Toccata on Psalm # 33.

Cor Kee (1900-1997) was a pupil of Jan Zwart, Sem Dresden and Jean de Pauw.
For a long time he was professor of organ at the Utrecht Conservatory and also taught improvisation masterclasses at the Haarlem Summer Academy. He was one of Hollands most respected organists.
The famous Piet Kee is his son. Both of them (and other professionals)) took playing the organ in the Netherlands to a very much higher level, a form of art instead of just accompanying the congregation.

This is one of his early pieces (1923), when he still was very much under the influence of Jan Zwart and completely different from the style he developed in later years, which is much more modern.

I re-found it in an early collection and thought it a good idea to record this toccata, which is nice, although I doubt Cor Kee himself would agree and thank me for it!
He distanced himself from his early compositions later on.

The writing is still very much in the style of Jan Zwart, to whom he also dedicated the work. It is mostly in that early style, though throughout the toccata there are also signs of development to something more modern.
It consists of four major parts, a lengthy exposition (which is even longer, but I skipped the repeat which imho caused it to be a bit boring, like telling the same joke twice in a row), a meditative middle section and then a reprise of the toccata part with the psalm melody in manuals and pedal, ending with big chords and some dissonants which are a sign of the much more modern style he wrote in later on.
The final part is a non rythmical setting of the psalm, as it was sung in many Dutch churches in the beginning of the 20th century. In VERY conservative reformed circles, of which there still are many in Holland, singing the psalms (and ONLY the psalms) is still done this way, including some typical harmonics, which today among professionals are considered rather vulgar.

Enjoy!