Uren, dagen, maanden, jaren, vliegen als een schaduw heen.

"hours, days, months, years fleet away like a shadow."

It is a hymn about the impermanence of all things, loss and death and therefore was a standard end-of-year hymn long ago.

The hymn was very popular before the second world war, when Jan Zwart was the leading Dutch organist in Amsterdam.

The old text by Rhijnvis Feith (1753-1824) is beautiful and breathes a distinct reformatoric character that does not really fit into todays oecumenical thoughts pattern.

So the hymn was stricken from the Dutch Hymnal in 1973 and has not returned since.

Zwart wrote a prelude on it in his distinct style. I must confess I'm not a Zwart fan, but his music is still very much revered by the conservative christians in the Netherlands.

The prelude is followed by the hymn. I found a contemporary setting, but it is written one tone higher.

I did not want to transpose the organ, which always influences the sound image of the instrument, so don't be too surprised as the prelude is in F and the hymn in G.
I tried to play it in the fashion of the time as if a large crowd is singing in the cathedral