Buxtehude, Dieterich

(b ?Helsingborg, c1637; d Lübeck, 9 May 1707). German or Danish composer and organist. He is best known as a composer of organ music, of which he was one of the most important composers before J.S. Bach. He also left equally impressive repertories of sacred vocal and instrumental ensemble music.

1. Life.

2. Vocal works.

3. Instrumental works.

4. Sources, chronology and literature.

WORKS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

KERALA J. SNYDER

Buxtehude, Dieterich

1. Life.

No documents exist to verify the date and place of Buxtehude’s birth, and even his nationality has been disputed. The only contemporary information comes from a notice (in Nova literaria Maris Balthici) shortly after his death: ‘he recognized Denmark as his native country, whence he came to our region; he lived about 70 years’. Although his family must originally have come from the town of Buxtehude, south-west of Hamburg, his ancestors had settled at Oldesloe (now Bad Oldesloe) in the Duchy of Holstein early in the 16th century. His father, Johannes (1601/2–74), migrated from Oldesloe to the Danish province of Scania; his presence there as organist of the St Maria Kyrka in Helsingborg is documented for the year 1641. The hypothesis advanced by Pedersen and by Stahl (1951) that he could be identified with a German schoolmaster named Johannes, present in Oldesloe in 1638, and that Dieterich was therefore born in Oldesloe, appears questionable in the light of a review of the archives there. The death notice does not exclude Oldesloe as a birthplace, however, since Holstein was under Danish control at the time. In 1641 or 1642 Johannes moved across the sound to Elsinore, Denmark, to become organist of the St Olai Kirke, a position he held until his retirement in 1671. A son, Peiter, was born there to him and his wife, Helle Jespers Daater, in 1645; it is unknown whether Helle was also the mother of Dieterich. There were two daughters in the family, Anna and Cathrine, both presumably older than Dieterich.

Dieterich Buxtehude most likely attended the Latin School at Elsinore and received his music education from his father. In 1657 or 1658 he became organist at his father’s former church at Helsingborg and in 1660 moved back to Elsinore as organist of the Marienkirche, a German-speaking congregation. With the death of Franz Tunder on 5 November 1667 the position of organist of the Marienkirche at Lübeck, one of the most important in north Germany, became vacant. After several other organists had applied for the post and been rejected, Buxtehude was chosen on 11 April 1668. At the same time he was appointed Werkmeister, a post encompassing the duties of secretary, treasurer and business manager of the church; it carried a separate salary but at this period was given to the organist. Buxtehude became a citizen of Lübeck on 23 July 1668, and a few days later, on 3 August 1668, he married Anna Margarethe Tunder, the younger daughter of his predecessor. It is not known whether this was a condition of his employment, as it was to be with his successor, but the practice was not unusual at the time. Seven daughters were born of this union, four of whom survived to adulthood: Magdalena (or Helena) Elisabeth (b 1670), Anna Margreta (b 1675), Anna Sophia (b 1678) and Dorothea Catrin (b 1683). Buxtehude’s father joined him at Lübeck in 1673 and died there in 1674; his brother Peter (Peiter), a barber, followed in 1677.

Buxtehude’s official duties required him to play for the main morning service and the afternoon service on Sundays and feast days and for Vespers on the preceding afternoon. In addition to the customary preludes to the congregational chorales and the musical offerings of the choir, Buxtehude supplied music during Communion, often with the participation of instrumentalists or vocalists, or both, who were paid by the church. Part of his fame, however, rested on an activity totally outside his official church duties: his direction of the concert series known as the Abendmusiken (see Abendmusik). Tunder had given concerts in the church on weekdays, but Buxtehude moved them to five specific Sundays in the church year – the last two in Trinity and the second, third and fourth in Advent – and introduced the performance of sacred dramatic works in 1678, the same year as the inauguration of the Hamburg opera. Buxtehude’s Abendmusiken were in fact considered the equivalent of operas; Hinrich Elmenhorst, a librettist for the Hamburg opera, referred to them as such in 1688.

There is little evidence of travel, but a painting by Johannes Voorhout from 1674 (fig.1) documents his close friendship with the Hamburg organist Johann Adam Reincken and suggests frequent visits to Hamburg, where he would also have known Christoph Bernhard and Matthias Weckmann. His friendship with Johann Theile is attested by a poem that he contributed to Theile’s St Matthew Passion (Lübeck, 1673) and his help in financing the publication of Thiele’s masses (Wismar, 1673). The claim that Theile was Buxtehude’s teacher (J. Mattheson: Critica musica, ii, 1725/R) must be discounted in view of Buxtehude's greater skill in composition at that time. Poems by Buxtehude also appear in the Harmonologia musica (1702) of Andreas Werckmeister; it was Werckmeister who conveyed many of Buxtehude’s organ compositions to J.G. Walther, whose copies still exist. Buxtehude was also friendly with the Düben family in Stockholm; most of Buxtehude’s vocal music survives in the large manuscript collection (now at S-Uu) that the elder Gustaf Düben assembled.

Among the younger generation of organists, Nicolaus Bruhns was Buxtehude’s pupil, and Pachelbel dedicated his Hexachordum Apollinis (1699) to him. Mattheson and Handel visited him in Lübeck on 17 August 1703; Mattheson was being considered as a successor to him, but at the mention of the condition relating to marriage described above he quickly lost interest. The documentary evidence for Bach’s famous trip to Lübeck rests on the proceedings of the Arnstadt consistory of 21 February 1706, where it is noted that he ‘has been to Lübeck in order to learn one thing and another about his art’ and that he had requested a leave of four weeks but had stayed ‘about four times as long’. Thus he was probably present at the ‘extraordinary’ Abendmusik performances of 2 and 3 December 1705, commemorating the death of the Emperor Leopold I and the accession of Joseph I. Bach’s obituary confirms the length of his stay in Lübeck and the fact that he took Buxtehude, among others, as a model ‘in the art of the organ’. But Buxtehude’s role as the effective director of music for the city, commanding all genres of music except staged opera, may have inspired Bach as well.

Buxtehude was buried on 16 May 1707 in the Marienkirche beside his father and four daughters who had predeceased him. A successor agreeable to the ‘marriage condition’, J.C. Schieferdecker, had been serving as his assistant; he was appointed organist and Werkmeister on 23 June and married Anna Margreta Buxtehude on 5 September 1707.

Buxtehude, Dieterich

2. Vocal works.

Although Buxtehude never held a position that required him to compose vocal music, his vocal works survive in greater number than do his keyboard or ensemble works. They cover an extremely wide range of texts, scoring, genres, compositional styles and length. Texts are found in four languages, and performing forces range from one voice with one instrument and continuo (buxwv64 and 98) to six choirs (buxwv113). The very freedom with which Buxtehude composed this music – as communion and vesper music in church services, for the Abendmusiken, for occasions such as weddings and funerals or perhaps on commission from Gustaf Düben (i) – may help to explain its great variety. And Buxtehude seems to have adapted his style to suit the tastes of his patrons and audience. Glimpses of a broad, popular style can be seen in a work such as Schwinget euch himmelan (buxwv96), whose text is directed towards the Lübeck business community, while he dedicated the highly refined, Latin Membra Jesu (buxwv75) to the connoisseur Düben.

German and Latin sacred texts, either biblical prose or strophic poetry, serve as the basis for the majority of these works, with German poetry predominating. Buxtehude usually followed well-established German tradition in setting the prose texts as sacred concertos and the poetic texts either as arias or, in the case of church hymns, as chorale settings of the melodies associated with them. He did not always keep these genres as separate as his predecessors had done, however. In Buxtehude’s works concerto and aria can come together in two distinct ways: he could extend one genre by bringing into one or more sections of a work stylistic attributes associated with the other, or he could juxtapose them as separate movements to form composite works that are now generally called cantatas. This term appears in none of the sources, however, and was used in the 17th century mainly with reference to secular music.

(i) Concertos.

Buxtehude drew all his German prose texts from the Luther Bible and most of his Latin texts from the Vulgate, with a strong preference in both cases for excerpts from psalms. In addition there are three non-biblical Latin texts (buxwv11, 83, and 94) in a highly subjective, sometimes mystical, devotional prose which was a popular element of both Catholic and Protestant piety in the 17th century. In setting prose texts as vocal concertos Buxtehude usually followed the procedure, inherited from the motet, of dividing the text into short phrases and giving each a new musical motif closely tied to the words. The musical sections thus generated are often strongly contrasting, but they remain dependent parts of a larger whole and cannot be considered separate movements. The prevailing style is the concertato, where voice or voices and instruments, or voices alone with continuo, toss these word-bound musical motifs back and forth in a manner ultimately derived from the Venetian polychoral style (e.g. buxwv49). Sections of arioso are often introduced as well, and changes of metre provide additional contrast. Examples of concertos with sections in a more lyrical aria style can be found among both the German works (e.g. buxwv71, 73 and 98) and those with Latin texts (e.g. buxwv12 and 64), especially those with non-biblical texts, such as buxwv83, which approaches the style of the Italian secular cantata.

(ii) Arias.

The aria is the central genre within Buxtehude’s vocal output and is found both singly and in composite works. All texts are strophic, most of them in German and many from 17th-century hymnals. His favourite poets were Johann Rist, Ernst Christoph Homburg, Johann Scheffler (also known as Johann Angelus Silesius), Heinrich Müller, and Ahasverus Fritszch. His choice of these poems, many of them on topics of love for Jesus and longing for heaven, has raised the question of whether Buxtehude was of Pietist persuasion (see Geck, 1965). But although he may have shared a personal piety with these authors, he could not have espoused the Pietist programme of Lutheran church reform as first set forth by Theophil Grossgebauer in 1661, which criticized the use of Latin texts, italianate concerted style, artful organ music and festive music performed during the distribution of communion (see Snyder, 1987, and Irwin, 1993). Many of Buxtehude’s arias betray their roots in the sacred songbooks (e.g. buxwv105), with pure strophic form, a syllabic or paired-note declamation of the text and a strongly periodic phrase structure. Unlike the songbooks, however, Buxtehude’s arias always call for instrumental participation, either in ritornellos or for concertato interjections. And although the sacred song and aria is often considered to be a genre for solo voice, Buxtehude’s arias are more often set for a small or large ensemble of singers and instrumentalists.

The formal range in Buxtehude’s treatment of strophic poetry is vast. At one end of the scale is pure strophic form, which is found in all the wedding arias and in some of the sacred arias as well, particularly within cantatas. Most of his arias, however, are expanded in some way, as varied strophic form, completely through-composed or a combination of both. Works in varied strophic form contain changes in the music from strophe to strophe while still maintaining an overall unity and highlighting the strophic nature of the text in some way, with an unvarying strophic bass (e.g. buxwv58 and the arias in buxwv75), a ritornello or sometimes a vocal refrain. Although the scoring may change, the metre is constant throughout, and one or more strophes of music recur as the piece progresses. Of the settings of strophic texts where the melody is completely through-composed, some are highly unified by means of a ritornello and/or a homogeneous style (e.g. buxwv84), and a few show concerto-like sectional contrast that does not always correspond to the strophic structure (e.g. buxwv87). A small group approach the cantata in their juxtaposition of concerto and aria styles (e.g. buxwv22). Here the first strophe is a closed section for all the voices in concertato style, with the succeeding strophes set as an aria for solo voices, unified by a ritornello or a refrain. A closing concertato section uses the final strophe or an appended ‘Amen’ or ‘Alleluia’, or both.

(iii) Chorale settings.

Although in purely poetic terms a chorale text is identical to a strophic poem, there is an important musical difference in that it is usually identified with a specific melody, and with only a few exceptions Buxtehude used this as a cantus firmus. Four different compositional styles can be seen in his chorale settings: the chorale concerto and the chorale sinfonia, both inherited from earlier generations, the concertato chorale harmonization and the transformation of the choral melody into aria style.

In Buxtehude’s chorale concertos (e.g. buxwv32) the voices and instruments engage in extensive concertato interchange as equal partners and the texture is often quite contrapuntal, whereas in the chorale sinfonia (e.g. the opening strophe of buxwv41) the instruments predominate while a single voice sings the unadorned cantus firmus. The concertato chorale harmonization represents a grafting of the instrumental interjections characteristic of the concerto on to the four-part chorale harmonizations found in hymnals; it is Buxtehude’s most characteristic form of chorale treatment for voices. Most of them contain two to eight chorale strophes that vary only slightly from one to the next. The degree to which the instrumental ensemble breaks into the presentation of the chorale varies from slightly (e.g. buxwv103) to extensively, as in buxwv10 and 52. Transformations of the chorale Jesu meine Freude into aria style are found in buxwv60, as a concertato aria for bass and instruments in versus 3 and as continuo arias for soprano in versus 2 and 5. This work, like buxwv21, 41, 78 and 100, approaches the cantata in its differentiation of separate strophes by means of style and scoring.

(iv) Cantatas.

Buxtehude combined independent movements in the different genres discussed above to form composite works that are now generally called cantatas. The concerto and the aria are by far the most important single genres among Buxtehude’s vocal compositions, and their combination to form the concerto-aria cantata also produces the largest number of works within the cantatas. Each of these cantatas begins with a concerto movement, usually preceded by an instrumental sonata; beyond this there is considerable formal variety. The aria, however, can always be perceived as the core of the cantata and is quite highly unified in either pure or varied strophic form. Concertato style almost always returns as a framing element at the end, usually by means of a simple repetition of the opening movement, sometimes with a movement on a different biblical text or an ‘Amen’ or ‘Alleluia’. Sometimes the concertato writing appears, in the manner of a rondo, between the strophes of the aria. All Buxtehude’s cantatas have German texts with the exception of Membra Jesu (buxwv75), a cycle of seven concerto-aria cantatas dedicated to Gustaf Düben in 1680. Only in isolated instances did Buxtehude combine chorale and aria (buxwv86) or concerto and chorale (buxwv29) to form a cantata, but there are four examples of the older mixed cantata, which combines all three elements (buxwv4, 34, 51 and 112). His method of building cantatas by drawing together these previously diverse elements was shared by many of his contemporaries, providing the foundation for the sacred cantata of the 18th century, with its addition of recitative set to madrigalesque poetry.

(v) Ciaccone.

Buxtehude composed six works (buxwv38, 57, 62, 69, 70 and 92) over an ostinato bass; except for the opening sinfonia of buxwv62 the ostinato is maintained rigorously throughout the work without variation or modulation. Four are designated ‘Ciaccona’ in their manuscript sources, and they include both concertos and arias, with prose and poetic texts. In one work (buxwv57) Buxtehude set a poetic text in the manner of the concerto. He also used ostinato basses in portions of other vocal works, most frequently in a final ‘Amen’ or ‘Alleluia’ section (e.g. buxwv3, 15, 89 and 96).

(vi) Dialogues.

Two works (buxwv111 and 112) are designated ‘Dialogus’ in their sources, and two others (buxwv36 and 61) likewise belong to this smaller dramatic form, with specific voice parts assigned to identified or implied characters, usually Jesus and the Soul. Like the ciaccona, this designation cuts across the other genres, including a concerto, two arias and a mixed cantata.

(vii) Miscellaneous vocal works.

A few pieces by Buxtehude do not fit well into any of the above categories. The music for his father’s funeral on 29 January 1674 (buxwv76) might be called a chorale-aria cantata, but it is more likely that its two parts were performed separately. The chorale setting was in fact composed earlier (in 1671) for another funeral, and in its extremely learned contrapuntal style it is unlike any other of Buxtehude’s chorale settings. It is modelled on a similar work by Chistoph Bernhard (see Snyder, 1980). The aria, to a text undoubtedly written by Buxtehude himself, is in simple strophic form with string accompaniment but is also more contrapuntal than any of his other arias. The Missa alla brevis (buxwv114) is Buxtehude’s only surviving work in the stile antico; its manuscript can be dated to c1675. These works in learned counterpoint, including the two canons (buxwv123–4) entered in autograph books, reflect Buxtehude’s friendship with Theile, Reincken and Bernhard in the early 1670s. Finally, Benedicam Dominum (buxwv113), scored for six choirs – two vocal and four instrumental – is his one extant contribution to the genre of the ‘colossal’ Baroque style.

(viii) Abendmusik.

From the oratorios that Buxtehude presented at his numerous Abendmusiken, three librettos are the only sure survivals: Die Hochzeit des Lamms, a two-part oratorio from 1678, and the two ‘extraordinary’ presentations of 1705, Castrum doloris and Templum honoris. The libretto for 1700, consisting of four programmes of shorter selections and a repeat of the music from the preceding New Year, is summarized in the literature but has been missing since World War II. The surviving librettos indicate that the oratorio-like Abendmusiken consisted of a mixture of choruses, recitatives, strophic arias and chorale settings, with considerable instrumental participation. The mixed programmes of 1700 were made up of arias, chorale settings and concertos; unfortunately, none of Buxtehude’s extant music is set to those specific texts.

The titles or themes from some other years are also known: in 1688 the subject was the prodigal son, and the catalogues of the Frankfurt and Leipzig fairs for spring 1684 listed the future publication of two works by Buxtehude described as Abendmusiken, Himmlische Seelenlust auf Erden über die Menschwerdung und Geburt unsers Heylandes Jesu Christi and Das Allerschröcklichste und Allererfreulichste, nemlich, Ende der Zeit und Anfang der Ewigkeit. Whether these were to be librettos or music and whether they were in fact published is unclear. Willi Maxton claimed to have found Das Allerschröcklichste in Uppsala in a set of anonymous parts for an oratorio beginning ‘Wacht! Euch zum Streit gefasset macht’, and he published an abridged arrangement of it in 1939 under the title Das jüngste Gericht (buxwvsuppl.3). Its authenticity as a work of Buxtehude became a subject of continued controversy, leading to Ruhle’s dissertation (1982), which includes a summary of the discussion, a complete libretto and an edition of those movements omitted by Maxton. Snyder’s hypothesis (1987, amplified in Walker, 1990) that Wacht! Euch zum Streit is the work that Buxtehude composed for the Abendmusiken of 1682 has thus far gone unchallenged.

Buxtehude, Dieterich

3. Instrumental works.

(i) Keyboard music.

Buxtehude’s keyboard works fall into several distinct genres: praeludia, canzonas, ostinato works, chorale settings, suites, and secular variation sets. As was customary at the time, their sources do not name a particular keyboard instrument, but most of the praeludia and chorale settings and all three ostinato works require pedals (many of the praeludia are specifically designated pedaliter) and thus are presumably intended for the organ. The works in the remaining genres are all manualiter and could have been played on any keyboard instrument. If Buxtehude composed the canzonas primarily for instructional purposes, as apppears to be the case, he may have had the clavichord in mind, and keyboard suites and secular variation sets were often performed on quilled keyboard instruments. It is worth noting that the keyboard instrument specified for the continuo in Buxtehude’s published sonatas is the cembalo, or harpsichord. None of his manualiter compositions requires more than one manual.

The 52-stop organ that Buxtehude played in Lübeck had 15 stops in the pedal, more than in any of its three manual divisions; this included two 32' stops and a full complement of principals, mixtures and reeds. Thus it is not surprising to find that in his organ music the pedal goes far beyond what had been its traditional role – as slow harmonic support or bearer of the cantus firmus – to participate fully in the fabric of the music, including its share of virtuoso display, particularly in the pedaliter praeludia. Another characteristic of the north German organ was its Brustwerk and Rückpositiv divisions, featuring solo reeds and many upper partials which could be combined to produce a sharply differentiated melodic line. This type of sound is particularly well suited to a solo voice, such as highly ornamented cantus firmus, with the other voices played on another manual using a contrasting registration. If there are three accompanying voices, as in most of Buxtehude’s chorale preludes, the pedal becomes almost mandatory for the bass line. This tonal contrast between divisions naturally lent itself also to echo effects and to works with strong sectional contrasts, both of which are especially prominent in Buxtehude’s chorale fantasias.

(a) Praeludia.

Buxtehude’s praeludia (including a few works entitled ‘toccata’ or ‘praeambulum’, but none headed ‘Praeludium and Fuga’) form the heart of his repertory for organ, indeed of his works altogether. Their essence lies in the alternation of sections in a free, improvisatory and idiomatic keyboard style with sections in a structured, fugal style. They may contain one, two or three fugues, using a wide variety of styles and contrapuntal devices. The free sections, with which they invariably begin and which normally appear later in the piece, are composed in a dazzling array of textures and styles, from lengthy pedal points to fleeting semiquaver and even demisemiquaver scales and arpeggios, from pure chordal homophony through various stages of its decoration to imitative counterpoint and fugato subsections, from tonal stability to daring harmonic excursions. The subjects of the fugues are usually instrumental in character, with repeated notes, wide leaps and rests; some, indeed, are idiomatic to the pedal (e.g. buxwv137). Within a praeludium they are often related to one another in the manner of the variation canzonas inherited from Frescobaldi and Froberger, perhaps through Matthias Weckmann. Each fugue consists of a series of expositions, usually confined to entries in the tonic and dominant, with tonal answers predominating. Although Buxtehude makes frequent use of double counterpoint and stretto, there is very little episodic material or real modulation, these functions being fulfilled by the free sections between the fugues and the frequent dissolution of fugal procedure as they end.

With their wide variety of forms and multiplicity of styles, Buxtehude’s praeludia may appear improvisatory, and indeed the art of the north German organist lay chiefly in improvisation. Behind this appearance of freedom, however, careful planning can be detected, and their multiple sections are related to one another in often subtle ways. The Baroque concept of the stylus fantasticus, as discussed by Athanasius Kircher in 1650, can help to explain this seeming dichotomy:

The fantastic style is suitable for instruments. It is the most free and unrestrained method of composing; it is bound to nothing, neither to words nor to a melodic subject; it was instituted to display genius and to teach the hidden design of harmony and the ingenious composition of harmonic phrases and fugues.

By the time Mattheson discussed this style in 1739, the emphasis had shifted to include the improvising performer as well as the composer, and formal fugues no longer had a proper place within it. Mattheson’s stylus fantasticus does not well describe Buxtehude’s praeludia as complete compositions, but it contains important information concerning the style and performance of their free sections: ‘now swift, now hesitating, now in one voice, now in many voices, now for a while behind the beat, without measure of sound, but not without the intent to please, to overtake and to astonish’.

(b) Canzonas.

Buxtehude’s canzonas, also entitled ‘canzon’, ‘canzonet’ and ‘fuga’, form the only genre among his keyboard works that is strictly contrapuntal. Marpurg used part of buxwv168 as an illustration of a counter fugue in his treatise on fugue, but on the whole they do not rise to the heights of the fugues of the praeludia in their contrapuntal art. Half of them are variation canzonas, the others single fugues, and they all have lively subjects, mainly in quavers and semiquavers. All manualiter works, they were probably composed as teaching pieces. Indeed, they continued to be used as such; Heinrich Nikolaus Gerber copied a portion of buxwv166 into his notebook at the age of 13.

(c) Ostinato works.

The three ostinato pieces (buxwv159–61) are among Buxtehude’s best-known works and exerted their influence on Brahms as well as on Bach. Here he took a form which was popular in Italy and south Germany but not in north Germany and made it into truly idiomatic pedaliter organ music. In all three pieces the pedal is used chiefly for the ostinato, thereby freeing both hands to execute more complex variations above it than can occur in a manualiter work. The formal design of the passacaglia (buxwv161) is particularly noteworthy: four sections, each containing seven variations of a seven-note ostinato, in the keys of D minor, F, A minor and D minor. Buxtehude also used ostinato sections to good effect within the praeludia (e.g. buxwv137 and 149).

(d) Chorale settings.

A speciality of the north German organist lay in the imaginative presentation of Lutheran chorales, and Buxtehude’s 47 chorale settings constitute the major part of his organ works. They fall into three groups – chorale variations, chorale fantasias and chorale preludes – each showing a distinctive approach to the chorale. Sets of chorale variations had been cultivated extensively by Sweelinck and Scheidt but do not figure very prominently in Buxtehude’s output. Consisting of only three or four verses, they are often restricted to the manuals alone and sometimes to only two voices (as in the traditional bicinium) and the cantus firmus frequently appears unornamented (e.g. buxwv213). In terms of variety and keyboard technique they do not match the variations of Pachelbel and Böhm. The variations on Auf meinen lieben Gott (buxwv179) form an exception; as a dance suite on a chorale tune, however, they were more likely intended for performance on the harpsichord.

The chorale fantasia is perhaps the most distinctive genre cultivated by the north German organists on the large instruments of the Hanseatic cities during the 17th century, particularly Scheidemann, Weckmann and Reincken in Hamburg and Tunder and Buxtehude in Lübeck. These enormous and virtuoso settings of a single chorale strophe are analogous in compositional method to vocal concertos: each phrase of the chorale is developed separately and extensively to form a highly sectionalized piece full of dramatic contrast (e.g. buxwv210 and 223). The four works based on chant (buxwv203–5 and 218) belong to this group as well. The term ‘chorale fantasia’ is a modern one but these works indeed demonstrate the stylus fantasticus, albeit in a distinctly Lutheran way. Kircher might not have accepted them into his style category on account of their adherence not only to a cantus firmus but also to its associated text, as exemplified in Buxtehude’s use in buxwv210 of a gigue fugue to project the affect of joy at the words ‘sweet wonderful deed’, followed by a chromatic countermelody in an allusion to the Crucifixion in the last line of the chorale Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein. And yet these works are as filled with fantasy as the pedaliter praeludia. If they have not found as much favour with modern players and audiences, it is perhaps because a thorough familiarity with the underlying chorale is essential to their appreciation.

The majority of Buxtehude’s surviving chorale settings, and among his most characteristic works, are chorale preludes, concise and expressive settings of one stanza of the chorale (e.g. buxwv184) in a single voice. Most of them are very similar in outward appearance: clearly intended for two manuals and pedal, the cantus firmus is set apart in the upper voice in a richly ornamented version, accompanied by three parts which are contrapuntal but not necessarily imitative. Beneath the surface, however, each is unique, eloquently laying out the unspoken text of the chorale by means of the extensive vocabulary of rhetorical figures available to the Baroque composer (see Reichert, 1994). In this group of works the organ comes closest to imitating the human voice; as Christoph Bernhard wrote in his singing treatise, ‘Cantar d’affetto pertains only to singers, because only they have a text; nevertheless, instrumentalists can also make use of it to a degree, if they know how to use and moderate their instruments with joyful or doleful harmony appropriate to them’. Buxtehude probably composed them to introduce the congregational singing in Lübeck, and they are his only organ works whose use within the liturgy is completely unproblematic.

(e) Suites and secular variation sets.

Both Walther and Mattheson bemoaned the fact that Buxtehude had never published any of his keyboard music. Mattheson (1739, p.130) specifically mentioned seven keyboard suites depicting the nature of the planets. These have never come to light, but there is one manuscript tablature (in DK-Kk) which contains 19 suites and six sets of secular variations ascribed to Buxtehude. The fact that two of the suites were actually composed by Nicolas-Antoine Lebègue (Paris, 1687) underlines the stylistic similarity of the German keyboard suite to French models, particularly in the use of style brisé. The suites are nearly all in the standard order allemande–courante–sarabande–gigue, with an occasional double. The courantes always begin as variations of the allemandes, as do some of the sarabandes; the gigues go their own way, often in a loose fugal style that is not nearly as structured as that of the numerous fugues in gigue rhythm found in the praeludia and canzonas. The suites are more conventional than most of Buxtehude’s organ music and do not match the individualized expression attained by Froberger. The secular variations, on the other hand, show a much greater interest in the variation process than can be seen in the organ music. La capricciosa (buxwv250), a set of 32 variations on the bergamasca, presents a virtuoso showpiece, layering dance upon dance by including variations in gigue, saraband and minuet rhythm.

(ii) Ensemble music.

Buxtehude’s only major publications during his lifetime were two sets of ensemble sonatas. A collection of sonatas for two or three violins, viola da gamba and continuo, announced for publication in 1684, is either lost or never appeared; it is listed in the same catalogue as the two Abendmusiken that have never been found. The two extant prints, from ?1694 and 1696, each contain seven sonatas for violin, viola da gamba and harpsichord continuo, a scoring found in Germany, Austria and England but noticeably absent in Italy. These are sonatas a due, based on virtuoso and integrated writing for the violin and gamba. Although real trio texture sometimes occurs, the continuo line is more often a simplification of the gamba part. The structure of the sonatas is based on an alternation of tempo and texture, but this can take place either by means of tonally closed, independent movements or with sections that flow together; there is no standardization of their number, which ranges from three to 14. Half the sonatas have at least one ostinato movement, with the pattern remaining unvaried in the continuo bass. The gamba part consists sometimes of divisions on this bass, sometimes of an independent part above it. The contrapuntal movements are fugal in style but are usually in only two real parts; as a result there is much more episodic writing than in the organ fugues. The continuo bass is more likely to be independent in the slow, homophonic sections, many of which are transitional in nature; in their harmonic intensity these sections are often reminiscent of the transitions in his organ praeludia and of Rosenmüller’s sonatas of 1682. Kircher included sonatas among the genres associated with the stylus fantasticus, and Buxtehude’s sonatas embody it to an extent even greater than that seen in the organ praeludia, nowhere more so than in the 14 sections of buxwv257. By the time of their publication in the mid-1690s most Italian sonatas were normally cast in four movements, but Buxtehude’s are totally unpredictable. One can expect at least two orderly, structured sections within each sonata, but these might be a fugue, a variation set or a dance. Behind the improvisatory style of some sections and the seemingly haphazard overall arrangement, however, lie careful planning and organic unity.

The sonatas surviving in manuscript all appear to be earlier than those of opp.1 and 2. buxwv266, 269 and 271, scored for two violins, viola da gamba and continuo, may have belonged to the 1684 collection. Buxtehude’s reworking of buxwv273 (from the 1680s) as op.1 no.4 shows that he had experimented with the sonata-suite combination cultivated by Reincken, Becker and Erlebach but abandoned it in favour of the sonata alone, perhaps because he wished to avoid the predictability of the arrangement of dances in the suite.

Buxtehude, Dieterich

4. Sources, chronology and literature.

Since Buxtehude published no keyboard music and, besides the sonatas, only a few occasional vocal works, the survival of the bulk of his works has depended on manuscript transmission, and it must be assumed that a considerable amount has been lost. The two principal sources for his vocal music were both compiled during his lifetime and with his knowledge. Gustaf Düben’s collection, which his son Anders von Düben (ii) gave to Uppsala University Library in 1732, contains 99 vocal works by Buxtehude in manuscript (fig.2). These include five autographs in German organ tablature (buxwv75, 78–9, 85 and 88), one in score (buxwv31), one in parts (buxwv36) and numerous other manuscripts that appear to have been copied by Düben and his assistants from loaned autographs. The other important source is the Lübeck tablature A373 (D-Bsb) comprising 20 vocal works and one fragment. The first nine pieces contain autograph insertions, and the source appears to have been prepared under Buxtehude’s direction, perhaps towards the end of his life. There is a remarkable absence of his vocal music from all the important central German manuscript collections and inventories of the period.

The situation is completely reversed with regard to the organ music. Here the sources are widespread, many of them being of central German provenance, yet there is not a single manuscript that can be closely identified with Buxtehude himself. He undoubtedly wrote his organ music in tablature, but most of these manuscripts are in staff notation; there is only one group of north German sources in tablature (in the Wenster Collection, S-L), copied by Gottfried Lindemann and dated 1713–14. Lindemann had studied in Stettin, perhaps with Gottlieb Klingenberg, who in turn had studied with Buxtehude until 1689. Owing to the scattered nature of the sources, the variants between concordances are much greater than is the case with the vocal music.

The most striking aspect in all the organ manuscripts is the selectivity with which they were compiled. Walther was interested only in Buxtehude’s chorale settings, and most of these works owe their preservation to seven separate manuscripts in his hand. The rest of the larger manuscripts, however, together with Lindemann’s collection, show a decided preference for free organ works, especially praeludia. The oldest of these is the ‘codex E.B. 1688’ at Yale University, which was copied in Dresden by Emanuel Benisch, probably in 1688. A different repertory of praeludia survives in a family of manuscripts circulated among pupils of Bach; one of these (in B-Bc) was copied by J.F. Agricola, another belonged to Kirnberger. These manuscripts contain only pieces with obbligato pedal and were largely extracted from an earlier collection which also contained preludes and canzonas for manuals alone (D-Bsb Mus 2681), which once belonged to J.N. Forkel. A final example of the selective manuscript compiler is seen in Johann Christoph Bach (1671–1721), J.S. Bach’s elder brother. Among his unique copies of pieces by Buxtehude (in D-LEm and D-Bsb) are the three ostinato pieces and the famous Praeludium in C with its ciaccona (buxwv137)

There is as yet no complete chronology of Buxtehude’s works. Research on the manuscripts of the Düben collection by Grusnick, Rudén and Snyder has established dates for the copying of many of his vocal works, giving a terminus ante quem that may be quite close to the date of composition. Most of them came into the collection during the years 1680–87. Those copied before 1680 show a greater preference for concertos and arias with Latin texts, and for strict ostinato and contrapuntal procedures; most of the cantatas appear after 1680. Very little vocal music survives from the 20 years of Buxtehude’s life after Gustaf Düben ceased collecting in 1687. Although the Lübeck tablature A 373 was copied later, not all of its repertory is more recent, for there are a number of concordances with the Düben collection. This manuscript seems, moreover, to have been compiled with the intention of providing a representative selection of Buxtehude’s music; there is a higher proportion of cantatas here, however, including three of the five mixed cantatas. Anders von Düben (ii) visited Buxtehude in Lübeck in 1692 and returned with copies of two sonatas. Linfield has demonstrated that Buxtehude’s composition of chamber music extended from the early 1660s (buxwv270) to his op.2 of 1696.

A chronology for the organ music is more difficult, since most of the existing manuscripts were copied after Buxtehude’s death. Snyder’s hypothesis (1987) that the Marienkirche organs were tuned in 1641 to modified mean-tone allowing E/D equivalence, further in 1673 for G/A, and in 1683 to Werckmeister’s ‘first correct temperament’ from his Orgel-Probe (1681) (no.III in his Musicalische Temperatur) has suggested a terminus post quem of 1683 for the composition of those works that require a circulating temperament. Working also from a thorough revaluation of the sources, a study of the keyboard compasses of the organs that Buxtehude played and a consideration of stylistic elements, Belotti (1995) proposed a chronology for the free organ works divided into three categories: those certainly composed before 1690 (buxwv136, 139, 142, 144, 148–9, 152, 154–5, 158, 162, 166–7, 169–70, 173 and 175), those probably composed before 1690 (buxwv140–41, 143, 145, 153, 156, 163–4, 168, 171 and 176), and those which may have been composed after 1690 (buxwv137, 146–7, 150–51, 159–61, 165 and 174). Schneider (1997) proposed that all the chorale fantasias were composed relatively early with only buxwv194 and 195 after 1673. Many of the chorale preludes can be played in mean-tone, but this does not necessarily mean that they were composed before 1683.

It is clear from the state of the sources that Buxtehude was regarded in the 18th century as a composer of keyboard music, and the scanty biographical notices from Walther and Mattheson reinforce this picture. Buxtehude scholarship began with Spitta’s Bach biography in 1873, and he too was interested primarily in the organ music, with a decided preference for the free works over the chorale settings. He also published the first comprehensive edition of Buxtehude’s organ music (1875–6), which Seiffert later revised and enlarged. Interest in Buxtehude’s organ music began in France in 1879, when Alexandre Guilmant performed it on the new Cavaillé-Coll organ at the Trocadéro in Paris. The only vocal music known to Spitta was the Lübeck tablature, but following Stiehl’s discovery in 1889 of the works by Buxtehude at Uppsala there was a definite shift of interest to the vocal music, which is evident in Pirro’s monograph of 1913. Publication of a complete edition of Buxtehude’s vocal works began in Germany in 1925 but reached only the eighth volume. A new international edition, begun in 1987, will complete the publication of the vocal works and include also the keyboard and ensemble music. Buxtehude’s vocal music continued as the main focus of scholarly interest during the 1960s, but a revaluation of Buxtehude’s historical importance by Krummacher (1966–7) concluded that it lay more in his organ music, and a concurrent reawakening of scholarly activity on Buxtehude’s organ music has continued unabated. Stiehl published most of Buxtehude’s chamber music in 1903, but only in the late 1970s did it begin to attract much attention from scholars and performers.

Interest in all genres of Buxtehude’s music inceased considerably during the last two decades of the 20th century, and performances, recordings, scholarly activity, new editions and conferences were occasioned by the 350th anniversary of his birth. At the beginning of the century Buxtehude was regarded primarily as a precursor of Bach; at its close his reputation as an important composer of keyboard, vocal and instrumental ensemble music rested secure.

Buxtehude, Dieterich

WORKS

Editions: Dietrich Buxtehude: Orgelwerke, ed. P. Spitta (Leipzig, 1875–6, rev. 2/1903–4/R by M. Seiffert); suppl. ed. M. Seiffert (Leipzig, 1939/R) [S]Dietrich Buxtehudes Werke, ed. W. Gurlitt and others, i–viii (Klecken and Hamburg, 1925–58/R); continued as Dieterich Buxtehude: The Collected Works, ed. K.J. Snyder, C. Wolff and others, ix–xvi (New York, 1987–) [CW]Dietrich Buxtehude, 1637–1707: Klaver vaerker, ed. E. Bangert (Copenhagen, 1941, 2/1953) [Ba]Dietrich Buxtehude: Orgelwerke, ed. J. Hedar (Stockholm, 1952) [H]Dietrich Buxtehude: Sämtliche Orgelwerke, ed. K. Beckmann (Wiesbaden, 1971–2, 2/1997) [B]Dietrich Buxtehude: Sämtliche Suiten und Variationen für Klavier/Cembalo, ed. K. Beckmann (Wiesbaden, 1980) [Bk]

Catalogue: Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von Dietrich Buxtehude: Buxtehude-Werke-Verzeichnis, ed. G. Karstädt (Wiesbaden, 1974, 2/1985) [BuxWV]

sacred vocal

secular vocal

lost vocal works

keyboard

other instrumental

doubtful and misattributed works

Buxtehude, Dieterich: Works

sacred vocal

Buxtehude, Dieterich: Works

secular vocal

Buxtehude, Dieterich: Works

lost vocal works

Buxtehude, Dieterich: Works

keyboard

Buxtehude, Dieterich: Works

other instrumental

Buxtehude, Dieterich: Works

doubtful and misattributed works

Buxtehude, Dieterich

BIBLIOGRAPHY

catalogues, bibliographies, source studies

GöhlerV

C. Stiehl: ‘Die Familie Düben und die Buxtehude’schen Manuscripte auf der Bibliothek zu Uppsala’ MMg, xxi (1889), 2–9

B. Grusnick: ‘Zur Chronologie von Dietrich Buxtehudes Vokalwerken’, Mf, x (1957), 75–84

F. Riedel: Quellenkundliche Beiträge zur Geschichte der Musik für Tasteninstrumente in der zweiten Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts (vornehmlich in Deutschland) (Kassel, 1960)

B. Grusnick: ‘Die Dübensammlung: ein Versuch ihrer chronologischen Ordnung’, STMf, xlvi (1964), 27–82; xlviii (1966), 63–186

F. Krummacher: Die Überlieferung der Choralbearbeitungen in der frühen evangelischen Kantate (Berlin, 1965)

J.O. Rudén: Vattenmärken och Musikforskning: Presentation och Tillämpning av en Dateringsmetod påmusikalier i handskrift i Uppsala Universitetsbiblioteks Dübensamling (diss., U. of Uppsala, 1968)

H. Kümmerling: Katalog der Sammlung Bokemeyer (Kassel, 1970)

G. Karstädt, ed.: Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von Dietrich Buxtehude: Buxtehude-Werke-Verzeichnis (Wiesbaden, 1974, 2/1985)

H.-J. Schulze: Studien zur Bach-Überlieferung im 18. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1984)

R. Hill: The Möller Manuscript and the Andreas Bach Book: Two Keyboard Anthologies from the Circle of the Young Johann Sebastian Bach (diss., Harvard U., 1987)

H. Wettstein: Dietrich Buxtehude (1637–1707): Bibliographie zu seinem Leben und Werk (Munich, 1989)

H.-J. Schulze: ‘Bach und Buxtehude: eine wenig beachtete Quelle in der Carnegie Library zu Pittsburgh, PA’, BJb 1991, 177–81

K.J. Snyder: The Choir Library of St. Mary’s in Lübeck, 1546–1674 (forthcoming)

historical studies, biography

MatthesonGEP

WaltherML

A. Kircher: Musurgia universalis sive ars magna consoni et dissoni in x. libros digesta (Rome, 1650); ed. U. Scharlau (Hildesheim, 1970)

Nova literaria Maris Balthici et Septentrionis (Lübeck, 1698–1708)

J. Mattheson: Der vollkommene Capellmeister (Hamburg, 1739/R)

J. Moller: Cimbria literata (Copenhagen, 1744), ii

W. Stahl: Franz Tunder und Dietrich Buxtehude (Leipzig, 1926)

L. Pedersen: ‘Fra Didrik Hansen Buxtehudes barndom og ungdom 1636–37 til 1. maj 1668’, Medlemsbald for Dansk Organist og Kantorsamfund af 1905, iii (1937), 25–37

W. Stahl: ‘Die Lübecker Abendmusiken im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert’, Zeitschrift des Vereins für Lübeckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde, xxxix (1937), 1–64

W. Stahl: Dietrich Buxtehude (Kassel, 1937, 2/1952)

W. Stahl: ‘Dietrich Buxtehudes Geburtsort’, Mf, iv (1951), 382 only

J. Hennings and W. Stahl: Musikgeschichte Lübecks (Kassel, 1951–2)

N. Friis: Diderik Buxtehude (Copenhagen, 1960)

S. Sørensen: Das Buxtehudebild im Wandel der Zeit (Lübeck, 1972)

A. Elder: Der nordelbische Organist: Studien zu Sozialstatus, Funktion und kompositorischer Produktion eines Musikerberufes von der Reformation bis zum 20. Jahrhundert (Kassel, 1982)

C. Wolff: ‘Das Hamburger Buxtehude-Bild’, 800 Jahre Musik in Lübeck, ed. A. Grassman and W. Neugebauer, i (Lübeck, 1982), 64–79; repr. in Musik und Kirche, liii (1983), 8–19; repr. (with ‘Nachwort’) in Studien zur Musikgeschichte der Hansestadt Lübeck, ed. A. Edler and H.W. Schwab (Kassel, 1989), 44–62

K.J. Snyder: ‘Buxtehude's Organs: Helsingør, Helsingborg, Lübeck’, MT, cxxvi (1985), 365–9, 427–34

J. Irwin: Neither Voice nor Heart Alone: German Lutheran Theology of Music in the Age of the Baroque (New York, 1993)

discussions of works, some with biography

ApelG

MGG1 (F. Blume)

NewmanSBE

SmitherHO

P. Spitta: Johann Sebastian Bach, i (Leipzig, 1873–80, 5/1962; Eng. trans., 1884, 2/1899/R), 256–310

A. Pirro: Dietrich Buxtehude (Paris, 1913/R)

F. Blume: ‘Das Kantatenwerk Dietrich Buxtehudes’, JbMP 1940, 10–39; repr. in Syntagma musicologicum, i (see below: 1963), 320–51

J. Hedar: Dietrich Buxtehudes Orgelwerke: zur Geschichte des norddeutschen Orgelstils (Stockholm, 1951)

H. Lorenz: ‘Die Klaviermusik Dietrich Buxtehudes’, AMw, xi (1954), 238–51

D. Kilian: Das Vokalwerk Dietrich Buxtehudes: Quellenstudien zu seiner Überlieferüng und Verwendung (diss., Free U. of Berlin, 1956)

S. Sørensen: Diderich Buxtehudes vokale kirkemusik: studier til den evangeliske kirkekantates udviklingshistorie (Copenhagen, 1958)

G. Karstädt: Die ‘extraordinairen’ Abendmusiken Dietrich Buxtehudes (Lübeck, 1962)

F. Blume: ‘Dietrich Buxtehude in Geschichte und Gegenwart’, Syntagma musicologicum: gesammelte Reden und Schriften, i, ed. M. Ruhnke (Kassel, 1963), 351–63

S. Sørensen: ‘Monteverdi–Förster–Buxtehude: Entwurf zu einer entwicklungsgeschichtlichen Untersuchung’, DAM, iii (1963), 87–100

H.J. Pauly: Die Fuge in den Orgelwerken Dietrich Buxtehudes (Regensburg, 1964)

M. Geck: Die Vokalmusik Dietrich Butxtehudes und der frühe Pietismus (Kassel, 1965)

F. Krummacher: ‘Orgel-und Vokalmusik im Oeuvre norddeutscher Organisten um Buxtehude’, DAM, v (1966–7), 63–90

G. Karstädt: Der Lübecker Kantatenband Dietrich Buxtehudes: eine Studie über die Tabulatur Mus. A373 (Lübeck, 1971)

O. Mortensen: ‘Ein Vergleich der Couranten und Sarabanden Buxtehudes und Lebègues’, DAM, vii (1973–6), 129–39

G. Karstädt: ‘Die Instrumente in den Kantaten und Abendmusiken Dietrich Buxtehudes’, Beiträge zur Musikgeschichte Nordeuropas: Kurt Gudewill zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. U. Haensel (Wolfenbüttel, 1978), 111–21

F. Krummacher: Die Choralbearbeitung in der protestantischen Figuralmusik zwischen Praetorius und Bach (Kassel, 1978)

F. Krummacher: ‘Stylus phantasticus und phantastische Musik: kompositorische Verfahren in Toccaten von Frescobaldi und Buxtehude’, Schütz Jb 1980, 7–77

K.J. Snyder: ‘Dietrich Buxtehude's Studies in Learned Counterpoint’, JAMS, xxxiii (1980), 544–64

S.C. Ruhle: An Anonymous Seventeenth-Century German Oratorio in the Düben Collection (Uppsala University Library vok. mus. i hskr.71) (diss., U. of North Carolina, 1982)

E. Linfield: Dietrich Buxtehude’s Sonatas: a Historical and Analytical Study (diss., Brandeis U., 1984)

L. Archbold: Style and Structure in the Praeludia of Dietrich Buxtehude (Ann Arbor, 1985)

C. Defant: Kammermusik und Stylus phantasticus: Studien zu Dietrich Buxtehudes Triosonaten (Frankfurt, 1985)

C. Wolff: ‘Präludium (Toccata) und Sonata: Formbildung und Gattungstradition in der Orgelmusik Buxtehudes und seines Kreises’, Orgel, Orgelmusik und Orgelspiel: Festschrift Michael Schneider zum 75. Geburtstag, ed. C. Wolff (Kassel, 1985), 55–64

Dietrich Buxtehude und die europäische Musikseiner Zeit: Lübeck 1987

K.J. Snyder: Dieterich Buxtehude: Organist in Lübeck (New York, 1987)

A. Edler: ‘Fantasie and Choralfantasie: on the Problematic Nature of a Genre of Seventeenth-Century Organ Music’, Organ Yearbook, xix (1988), 53–66

E. Linfield: ‘North and South European Influences on Buxtehude's Chamber Music: Despite Influences, a Unique Repertory’, Schütz Jb 1988, 104–25

C. Defant: ‘“… ad ostentandum ingenium, abditam harmoniae rationem, ingeniosumque … contextum docendum”: Aspekte des Stylus phantasticus in den Orgelwerken und der Kammermusik Dietrich Buxtehudes’, Schütz Jb 1989, 69–103

K.J. Snyder: ‘To Lübeck in the Steps of J.S. Bach’, MT, cxxvii (1986), 672–7; repr. in Bach, xx/2 (1989), 38–48

C. Defant: Instrumentale Sonderformen in Norddeutschland: eine Studie zu den Auswirkungen eines Theologenstreites auf Werke der Organisten Weckmann, Reincken und Buxtehude (Frankfurt, 1990)

S.L. Gorman: Rhetoric and Affect in the Organ Praeludia of Dietrich Buxtehude (1637–1707) (diss., Stanford U., 1990)

P. Walker, ed.: Church, Stage and Studio: Music and its Contexts in Seventeenth-Century Germany (Ann Arbor, 1990)

T. Koopman: ‘Dietrich Buxtehude's Organ Works: a Practical Help’, MT, cxxii (1991), 148–53

P. Reichert: ‘Musikalsche Rhetorik in den Choralvorspielen von Dietrich Buxtehude’, Acta organologica, xxiv (1994), 145–84

D. Yearsley: Ideologies of Learned Counterpoint in the Northern German Baroque (diss., Stanford U., 1994)

M. Belotti: Die freien Orgelwerke Dieterich Buxtehudes: überlieferungsgeschichtliche und stilkritische Studien (Frankfurt, 1995, 2/1997)

A. Silbiger, ed.: Keyboard Music Before 1700 (New York, 1995)

G. Webber: North German Church Music in the Age of Buxtehude (Oxford, 1996)

M. Schneider: ’? (Kassel, 1997)