Dieterich Buxtehude (German: [ˈdiːtəʁɪç bʊkstəˈhuːdə]; born Diderich Hansen Buxtehude, Danish: [ˈtiðˀəʁek ˈhænˀsn̩ pukstəˈhuːðə]; around 1637 – May 9, 1707) was a Danish composer and organist from the middle Baroque era. His music is typical of the North German organ school. He wrote music for both voices and instruments. His style influenced many other composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Buxtehude is considered one of the most important composers of the 17th century.
Life
Dieterich Buxtehude was born with the name Diderich Buxtehude. His parents were Johannes (Hans Jensen) Buxtehude and Helle Jespersdatter. His father came from Oldesloe in the Duchy of Holstein, which was part of the Danish realms in Northern Germany at that time. Scholars disagree about the year and country of Dieterich’s birth. Most now believe he was born in 1637 in Helsingborg, a city in the province of Scania/Skåne, which was part of Denmark at the time (but is now part of Sweden). His obituary said, “he recognized Denmark as his native country, whence he came to our region; he lived about 70 years.” Others claim he was born in Oldesloe. Later in life, he changed his name to Dieterich Buxtehude.
His father, Johannes Buxtehude, was the organist at St. Olaf’s Church in Helsingør and at St. Mary’s Church in Helsingborg. Dieterich also worked as an organist, first in Helsingborg (from 1657 until 1658 or 1660) and then in Helsingør (1660–1668). The start of his career happened during the First and Second Dano-Swedish Wars, which led to Sweden taking control of eastern Denmark, including Scania, Blekinge, and Halland. Because of this, the Buxtehude family moved to Sweden.
It is unclear if the war affected Dieterich’s work, but in 1660, he accepted a position at St. Mary’s Church in Helsingør, Zealand. This is the only church where Buxtehude worked that still has the original organ. The organ from his father’s church in Helsingborg, which Dieterich also used, is now at Torrlösa Church and is still in use. It is called the “Buxtehude church organ.”
Buxtehude’s final job, from 1668, was at the Marienkirche in Lübeck, which had two organs: a large one for big services and a small one for devotional and funeral events. He took over from Franz Tunder and followed many of Tunder’s practices. In 1668, he married Tunder’s daughter, Anna Margarethe, a common practice at the time for a man to marry the daughter of his predecessor. Buxtehude and Anna Margarethe had seven daughters, who were baptized at the Marienkirche. His first daughter died as an infant. After retiring from St. Olaf’s Church, his father joined the family in Lübeck in 1673. Johannes died a year later, and Dieterich composed music for his funeral. His brother Peter, a barber, joined them in 1677.
His position in Lübeck gave him freedom to shape his musical career. This freedom influenced later Baroque composers, including George Frideric Handel, Johann Mattheson, Georg Philipp Telemann, and Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1673, he reorganized evening musical performances called Abendmusik, started by Tunder. These events brought musicians from many places and continued until 1810. In 1703, Handel and Mattheson visited Buxtehude, who was old and ready to retire. Buxtehude offered them his Lübeck position but required the new organist to marry his eldest daughter, Anna Margareta. Both men declined and left the next day. In 1705, J.S. Bach, then 20 years old, walked more than 400 kilometers from Arnstadt to Lübeck to hear Buxtehude play and learn about his music. He stayed nearly three months. In addition to his musical duties, Buxtehude also served as the church treasurer, like his predecessor Tunder.
More than 100 vocal compositions by Buxtehude survive, but few were included in important German music collections of the time. Until the early 20th century, Buxtehude was mainly known as a keyboard composer. His surviving church music is admired for its musical quality rather than for its innovative elements.
Works
Most of Buxtehude's music is vocal music, which includes many different styles, and organ music, which mostly focuses on chorale settings and large, structured pieces. Chamber music makes up a small part of his surviving works, though the only chamber music he published during his lifetime were fourteen chamber sonatas. Many of Buxtehude's compositions have been lost. The words for his oratorios are still around, but the actual music scores are not. His German oratorios seem to have influenced later works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann. More evidence of lost works by Buxtehude and his contemporaries can be found in a 1695 music-auction catalog in Lübeck.
Gustaf Düben's collection and the Lübeck tablature A373 are the most important sources for Buxtehude's vocal music. Düben's collection includes several original writings, both in German organ tablature and in standard score format. Both collections were likely created during Buxtehude's lifetime and with his permission. Copies made by other composers are the only surviving sources for his organ works: chorale settings are mostly passed down through copies by Johann Gottfried Walther, while Gottfried Lindemann and others copied his free works. Johann Christoph Bach's manuscript is especially important because it includes three known ostinato pieces and the famous Prelude and Chaconne in C major, BuxWV 137. Although Buxtehude likely wrote in organ tablature, most copies use standard staff notation.
The nineteen organ preludes form the core of Buxtehude's work and are considered his most important contributions to 17th-century music. These preludes are structured pieces that mix free improvisation with strict counterpoint. They are usually fugues or written in a fugal style, and they often use the organ's pedal. These preludes, along with works by Nicolaus Bruhns, represent the highest point in the development of the north German organ prelude and the style called stylus phantasticus. They likely influenced J.S. Bach, whose organ preludes, toccatas, and fugues use similar techniques.
The preludes vary widely in style and structure, making them hard to categorize because no two are the same. The texture of Buxtehude's preludes can be either free or fugal. They use strict diatonic harmony and secondary dominants. Typically, they begin with an introductory section, a fugue, and a postlude, though this structure is often expanded. For example, BuxWV 137 and BuxWV 148 include a chaconne alongside fugal and toccata-like sections, while BuxWV 141 has two fugues, sections of imitative counterpoint, and parts with chordal writing. Buxtehude's preludes are not circular, and there is no recapitulation. A fugal theme, when it repeats, does so in a new, changed way. Some pieces are smaller, like BuxWV 144, which has a short improvisatory prelude followed by a longer fugue. The sections may be clearly separated in the score or flow into each other, ending and beginning in the same bar. The texture is almost always at least three-voice, with many instances of four-voice polyphony and occasional sections in five voices (BuxWV 150 is an example with a five-voice structure, including two voices from the pedal).
The introductory sections are always improvisatory. The preludes usually begin with a single motif in one voice, which is then imitated for a bar or two. After this, the introduction often develops the motif or a short melodic idea passed between voices in three- or four-voice writing. Occasionally, the introduction uses parallel thirds and sixths. For example, BuxWV 149 starts with a single voice, moves to parallel counterpoint for nine bars, and then transitions to the texture described above. Improvisatory interludes, free sections, and postludes use a wide range of techniques, from imitative writing to non-motivic interactions like arpeggios, chordal style, and figuration over pedal points. Tempo markings are often included, such as Adagio sections with whole- and half-note chords, Vivace and Allegro imitative sections, and others.
The number of fugues in a prelude varies from one to three, not counting the free sections. Fugues typically use four voices with extensive pedal use. Most subjects are of medium length, often with some repetition, wide leaps, or runs of 16th notes. An exception is a fugue in BuxWV 145, which has a six-bar subject. Answers are usually on scale degrees 1 and 5, with little modulation. Stretto and parallel entries are used, with a focus on parallel entries. Short, simple countersubjects appear and may change slightly during the fugue. Buxtehude's fugues are a series of expositions with rare non-thematic material. Some variations exist in their construction, such as in BuxWV 136, where the second voice does not state the subject during the initial exposition, or in BuxWV 153, where the subject is inverted in the second exposition. Fugue subjects in a prelude may be related, similar to Froberger's and Frescobaldi's ricercars and canzonas (BuxWV 150, 152, etc.).
The fugal sections end when they transition to a free section, as seen in Example 4. Buxtehude's other works with free writing or sectional structure include pieces titled toccata and praeambulum. These are similar to the preludes in construction and techniques but may not use pedal passages or use them in a basic way (such as a pedal point lasting most of the piece). A well-known example is BuxWV 146, written in the rare key of F-sharp minor. It is believed Buxtehude composed this piece for himself and his organ, and he may have tuned the instrument uniquely to accommodate the key due to meantone temperament.
There are over 40 surviving chorale settings by Buxtehude, which are his most important contributions to the genre in the 17th century. His settings include chorale variations, chorale ricercares, chorale fantasias, and chorale preludes. His main contributions to the organ chorale are his 30 short chorale preludes. These preludes are usually four-part settings of one stanza of a chorale, with the melody in an elaborately ornamented version in the upper voice and the three lower parts engaging in counterpoint (not necessarily imitative). Most of Buxtehude's chorale settings follow this form. Here is
Recordings
Organ Works
– Lionel Rogg recorded Bach & Buxtehude on the Pedal Harpsichord (baroquecds.com) featuring works like BuxWV 137, 146, 149, 153, 160, 161.
– Simone Stella released Dieterich Buxtehude – Complete Harpsichord Music (4-CD set) with works including BuxWV 248, 240, 237, 234, 232, 242, 245, 238, 233, 227, 236, 250.
– Ton Koopman contributed to the Dieterich Buxtehude – Opera Omnia series:
– Vol I: Harpsichord Works 1 (BuxWV 250, 230, 238, 233, 245, 235, 247, 228, 242, 226, 243, 234, 232) on Antoine Marchand Records (CC74440).
– Vol VI: Harpsichord Works 2 (BuxWV 246, 236, 249, 239, Suite in a, 168, 244, 227, 165, 248, 240, 237, 166, Anh 6, 241, 229) on Antoine Marchand Records (CC74445).
– Rinaldo Alessandrini recorded BuxWV 163, 234, 164, 166, 226, 174, 248, 250.
– Lars Ulrik Mortensen performed BuxWV 243, 168, 238, 162, 250, 165, 223, 233, 176, 226, 249, 166, 179, 225, 247, 242, 174, 245, 171, 235, 170, 215.
Cantatas
– 6 Cantatas (BuxWV 78, 62, 76, 31, 41, 15) by Orchestra Anima Eterna & The Royal Consort, Collegium Vocale, Jos van Immerseel (1994, Channel Classics, CCS 7895).
– Sacred Cantatas (BuxWV 47, 94, 56, 73, 174, 12, 48, 38, 60) by Emma Kirkby et al., The Purcell Quartet (2003, Chandos Records Ltd, Chan 0691).
– Sacred Cantatas Vol. 2 (BuxWV 13, 92, 77, 17, 6, 71, 58, 37, 57) by Emma Kirkby, Michael Chance, Charles Daniels, Peter Harvey, The Purcell Quartett (2005, Chandos Records Ltd, Chan 0723).
– Sacred Cantatas (BuxWV 104, 59, 97, 161, 107, 53, 64, 108) by Matthew White, Katherine Hill, Paul Grindlay, Aradia Ensemble, Kevin Mallon (2004, Naxos 8.557041).
– Geistliche Kantaten (Sacred cantatas) by Cantus Cölln, Konrad Junghänel (Harmonia Mundi France, HMC 901629).
– O Gottes Stadt (BuxWV 87), Wo ist doch mein Freund geblieben? (BuxWV 111), and Herr, wenn ich nur dich hab (BuxWV 38) by Johannette Zomer and Peter Harvey on Death and Devotion (Netherlands Bach Society, Jos van Veldhoven, Channel Classics, CCS SA 20804).
– Dieterich Buxtehude – Opera Omnia, Volume 2, Vocal Works 1 (Wacht! Euch zum Streit gefasset macht (Das jüngste Gericht) (BuxWV Anh.3)) by Ton Koopman, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Caroline Stam, Orlanda Velez Isidro (soprano), Robin Blaze (alto), Andreas Karasiak (tenor), Klaus Mertens (bass) (Antoine Marchand Records, CC72241).
– **Dieterich Buxtehude – Opera Omnia, Volume 5, Vocal Works 2