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.
He is thought to have been born with the name Diderich
Buxtehude. His parents were Johannes (Hans Jensen)
Buxtehude and Helle Jespersdatter. His father
originated from Oldesloe in the Duchy of Holstein,
which at that time was a part of the Danish realms in
Northern Germany. Scholars dispute both the year and
country of Dieterich's birth, although most now accept
that he was born in 1637 in Helsingborg, Skåne at the
time part of Denmark (but now part of Sweden). His
obituary stated that "he recognized Denmark as his
native country, whence he came to our region; he lived
about 70 years". Others, however, claim that he was
born at Oldesloe. Later in his life he Germanized his
name and began signing documents Dieterich
Buxtehude.
His musical career, and his autonomy was a model for
the careers of later Baroque masters such as George
Frideric Handel, Johann Mattheson, Georg Philipp
Telemann and Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1673 he
reorganized a series of evening musical performances,
initiated by Tunder, known as Abendmusik, which
attracted musicians from diverse places and remained a
feature of the church until 1810. In 1703, Handel and
Mattheson both traveled to meet Buxtehude, who was by
then elderly and ready to retire. He offered his
position in Lübeck to Handel and Mattheson but
stipulated that the organist who ascended to it must
marry his eldest daughter, Anna Margareta. Both Handel
and Mattheson turned the offer down and left the day
after their arrival. In 1705, J.S. Bach, then a young
man of twenty, walked from Arnstadt to Lübeck, a
distance of more than 400 kilometres (250 mi), and
stayed nearly three months to hear the Abendmusik, meet
the pre-eminent Lübeck organist, hear him play, and,
as Bach explained, "to comprehend one thing and another
about his art". In addition to his musical duties,
Buxtehude, like his predecessor Tunder, served as
church treasurer.
The Sonata in G Major (BuxWV 271), for two violins and
gamba is symmetrically constructed and can almost be
regarded as one long concerto movement. It is in fact
characteristic of Buxtehude’s unpublished sonatas
that they contain more solo passages than the printed
collections. Three tutti sections, all marked Allegro,
enclose parallel solo passages for first and second
violins. The first tutti section is a short,
concentrated fugal construction where the three strings
present three expositions of the theme without episodes
and with varied ground bass accompaniment in the
continuo. Towards the end Buxtehude makes room, as is
his custom, for freer treatment of the material.
Soloistically motivated contrasts are a feature of the
two uniformly structured passages for solo violin:
these are the second section of the sonata (Adagio –
Allegro – Adagio – 12/16 – Adagio a 3) for first
violin and the fourth section (Adagio – Allegro) for
the second. The contrasts are between major and minor
tonality, between improvisatory, rhythmically free
passages and tightly controlled figurations, and
between slow and fast tempi. The tutti section in the
middle of the work (Allegro) is a set of variations
over an ostinato strophe of two times four measures. a
gracious melody that dissolves into figurations when
repeated is played by the first violin and then by the
second. At the last two statements of the ostinato
strophe (now without repetition of the second half) the
gamba joins the two high strings and eventually takes
over their figurations, so that the section ends as a
dialogue between three equal voices. The concluding
tutti evolves as a three-part fugal and concerted
treatment of a theme derived from the opening and
concluding note repetitions of the solo passages. After
the theme has been assigned thrice to each of the three
strings, the section proceeds as a concertato game
played with fragments of the theme and the recurrent
cadential motif. Here, too, Buxtehude succeeds with
never-failing inventiveness and musical enthusiasm in
bringing a piece to its culmination in an effective
final cadenza.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieterich_Buxtehude).
Although originally composed for 2 Violins, Bass Viola
& Continuo, I created this Interpretation of the Sonata
in G Major (BuxWV 271) for Winds (Flute, Oboe &
Bassoon) and Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
SHEET MUSIC