Copy A propos Website (about Stillness)

À Propos

In 1996 Willem Tanke wrote an organ piece called Stillness which became a metaphor for his musical practice. It captures a vision referring to his ancestors, who during many centuries were peasant labourers in the fields with a small piece of land: "It is springtime. At the end of a hard day's work a farm worker is resting a while before going home. He is leaning against a tree, his face towards the late afternoon sun, his thoughts directed nowhere. Suddenly, and for a brief moment, he sees Eternity. Some years later it happens again; after that, no more. But the longing for it encourages him during the rest of his life and strengthens him at the hour of death." Similarly Willem Tanke has two areas of special interest which he pursues every day: the classical organ repertoire and his own compositions and improvisations, solo and with other musicians.  Stillness - version König organ Stevenskerk, Nijmegen Stillness - Michalis Kouloumis, violin, Willem Tanke, piano

Copy website 22.1.2020

For over fourty years now Willem Tanke has been starting his day with practising organ works of J.S. Bach. He comes closer and closer to a particularly fluent Bach interpretation, making the organ—the most machine-like of instruments—breathe and live:  

 Willem Tanke is infinitely grateful to his former teacher and lifelong friend Jan Welmers. In 1999 he made a CD recording of his majestic Light and Darkness II - Te Deum  in the Stevenskerk in Nijmegen, where Jan Welmers was an organist from 1973 till 2002. Monologen is a piano work which Jan Welmers dedicated to Willem Tanke. It was recorded in the Orgelpark in Amsterdam in 2014:

Jan Welmers - Monologen for piano

Tanke performed the four works for organ and soundtracks of Ton Bruynel at the Holland Festival in 2006. Recordings were issued as part of a 

CD-box with the complete works of Ton Bruynel.

At the König organ in Nijmegen in 2017

Photo by Henk ten Holt

Willem Tanke developed a truly original musical language of his own:

The Story of Saint Michael and the Dragon

Between 1998 and 2000, as an organist of The African Choir of the Scots International Reformed Church in Rotterdam, he learnt around forty songs from Ghana and Cameroon. In 2006 and 2007 he lectured at symposia on Indian classical music and improvisation and composition at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai.

Collage with the Loret organ at Berkel-Enschot

Photo and composition by Dragan

Between 1997 and 2007 Tanke issued three CDs and two SuperAudioCDs with his own music, played on famous historical organs and a Yamaha SY-99 synthesizer. In 2014 he recorded an album (not issued) with Friso van Wijck, drums, and Ruben Verbruggen, saxophone on which they explore the boundaries of avant-garde jazz:

Playlist trio Turnstone

An innovating feature of Willem Tanke's language consists of a virtuoso way of playing with the left hand, inspired by percussion instruments which generate melodies out of rhythmic patterns, like tabla and darbuka. A specially designed keyboard with three manuals allows him to perform his music on any location:

Sounds of Expectation

From 1988 until 2000 Tanke was a professor of organ as a main subject at HKU, University of the Arts, Utrecht. Since 2001 he has been teaching theory and improvisation at Codarts, University of the Arts, Rotterdam.

He documents his expertise on a special website: Playing Keyboard Instruments in the 21st Century