Church Organist

Paul Houdijk has been organist at St. Catherine’s Cathedral at the Lange Nieuwstraat in Utrecht since 1978. There he plays the ‘Maarschalkerweerd’ organ of 1903, usually at the Saturday-evening mass of 6.30 pm or on Holy Days during the week.

His job is to accompany the hymns which are sung by the congregation as well as playing the pre- en postludes before and after the mass and interludes during the Eucharist and Holy Communion. The Saturday-evening service is a real organ mass, with the Invocation, Offertory, Holy Communion and Benediction. The organist though is well aware that it is a Holy Eucharist service and not an organ concert.

He tries as much as possible to select a repertoire for the Offertory and Holy Communion which is liturgically appropriate and blends well with the hymns for the day or the occasion during the ecclesiastical year. He is also playing music that is composed specifically for the different parts of the holy mass.

With regards to the accompaniment of the hymns, Paul Houdijk’s style is to determined by the romantic organ with its aesthetic and liturgical purposes; also the singing should never be superseded by the organ. In the end it is the understanding of the words that is the most important. You can find more about this in his publications regarding “Maarschalkerweerd & Zoon”.

Paul Houdijk has also composed a number of scores for use in church music. One Prélude Liturgique to be played before the start of a liturgical celebration, as well as twelve short preludes for hymns from the Dutch 'hymnbook for the liturgy'. Long preludes are not customary in Roman Catholic churches (and not favoured). Often a single chord is given which sounds a bit thin. Consequently Paul Houdijk has found the road in the middle. His preludes are a bit more than a chord, without becoming too long.

Since autumn 2007 the above mentioned compositions have been available as sheet music by 'print-on-demand' at Moebiprint, mr T. Klos, PO Box 557, 2070 AM Santpoort, The Netherlands, Tel. +31-72-5 71 51 72, moebi@multiweb.nl. On the section 'Sound Gallery' of this website you can listen to recordings of some of these compositions.