Dietrich Buxtehude is probably most familiar to modern
classical music audiences as the man who inspired the
young Johann Sebastian Bach to make a lengthy
pilgrimage to Lubeck, Buxtehude's place of employment
and residence for most of his life, just to hear
Buxtehude play the organ. But Buxtehude was a major
figure among German Baroque composers in his own right.
Though we do not have copies of much of the work that
most impressed his contemporaries, Buxtehude
nonetheless left behind a body of v...(+)
Dietrich Buxtehude is probably most familiar to modern
classical music audiences as the man who inspired the
young Johann Sebastian Bach to make a lengthy
pilgrimage to Lubeck, Buxtehude's place of employment
and residence for most of his life, just to hear
Buxtehude play the organ. But Buxtehude was a major
figure among German Baroque composers in his own right.
Though we do not have copies of much of the work that
most impressed his contemporaries, Buxtehude
nonetheless left behind a body of vocal and
instrumental music which is distinguished by its
contrapuntal skill, devotional atmosphere, and raw
intensity. He helped develop the form of the church
cantata, later perfected by Bach, and he was just as
famous a virtuoso on the organ.
This piece in G minor is one of Buxtehude's larger more
interesting praeludia. It is a bit unusual in its
construction. It consists of a free section, two
fugues, and a concluding bass ostinato section. As is
common in Buxtehude's praeludia, there is a bit of free
rhapsodic material in between the two fugues. The bass
ostinato section is particularly peculiar. The ostinato
itself is two bars plus one quarter note followed by a
bar and three quarters of rest in the bass line. The
rests in the bass line create an unusual ground bass,
in which the ground is not sounding nearly half the
time. On a large North German organ with an aggressive
pedal division, this creates a very grand effect with
the loud pedal division coming in and out of the
texture.
PARTITION