Obviously, I thoroughly prepared myself by studying a great deal of literature, but in nearly every case, I have let the musician have the last word, fully aware of the absolute nature of art and its inevitable continuity.

Admittedly, the resulting pattern would at times appear haphazard, a consequence not only of my own choices, but also because gaps arose, since few works of any real significance were written for the keyboard in the Netherlands in certain periods. After Sweelinck, for instance, the keyboard repertoire did not really regain momentum until the mid nineteenth century. This and the fact that not every Dutch composer wrote, or has written, for the keyboard were the two principal factors shaping this project, in which works have consistently been chosen on the basis of various considerations.