Dietrich Buxtehude (1637 - 1707) 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 behi...(+)
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637 - 1707) 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.
No documentation exists for Buxtehude's birth, though
he said late in life that he was a native Dane. Since
his father, Johannes, was organist and schoolmaster at
Oldesloe, Denmark, until 1638, it is a reasonable guess
that Dietrich was born there. Johannes moved to
Helsingborg in 1638 and to Helsingor in 1641 or 1642,
where he stayed until 1671. After learning the organ at
the feet of his father, Buxtehude became organist at
his father's former church in Helsingor in 1657 or
1658; he then moved to a German-speaking congregation
in Helsingborg in 1660. Buxtehude decided to stop
following in his father's footsteps when the
prestigious position of organist at the Marienkirche in
Lubeck became available; after several others were
rejected, Buxtehude got the job on April 11, 1668. He
also married the outgoing organist's youngest daughter,
Anna Margarethe Tunder, which may have been a condition
of taking the post, and certainly was a condition when
Buxtehude sought a replacement for himself. Buxtehude
was organist at the Marienkirche for the rest of his
life. His official duties were to provide
congregational chorales and other musical interludes
for every service, and to act as treasurer, secretary,
and business manager of the church. He was most famous,
however, for his Abendmusik concerts, held following
the afternoon service on five Sundays a year and on
special occasions. Although these concerts are
universally described as extraordinary, and were the
basis of most of Buxtehude's contemporary fame, very
little music from them has survived. Two of the most
famous Abendmusik concerts, held on December 2 and 3,
1705, and commemorating the death of Emperor Leopold I
and the ascension of Joseph I, were probably attended
by Bach on his pilgrimage. Buxtehude had an opportunity
for early retirement in 1703, when Georg Friederic
Handel and Johann Matheson (famous organists both)
visited him; Matheson had been thinking of succeeding
Buxtehude at his post, but balked at the requirement to
marry Buxtehude's daughter Anna Margareta, and the
visit came to nought. After Buxtehude died on May 9,
1707, the church found another organist willing to
marry his daughter.
Historically, Buxtehude's organ music has been studied
because of its direct influence on Bach; Buxtehude
wrote the first truly idiomatic fugues for the organ
and was one of the first to experiment with the
structure that Bach later codified into the prelude and
fugue. Buxtehude is generally considered the greatest
organist between Scheidt and Bach and is regarded as
the originator of the German organ toccata. However, in
addition to the keyboard music that so impressed his
contemporaries, he also wrote some extraordinary works
for trios involving the viola da gamba. His vocal works
shared the devotion and intellectual rigor of his
instrumental work, and were also much admired.
His collection of sonatas for violin, viola da gamba,
and continuo was published in 1696 in Hamburg by
Nicolaus Spierink. Buxtehude himself paid for the
publication of the sonatas. This instrumentation of the
sonatas may appear a bit unusual today, but sonatas
featuring solo violin and gamba were not uncommon in
Germany in the latter half of the seventeenth century.
Erlebach writes sonatas for the same instrumental
combination, and Johann Adam Reinken, Buxtehude's
friend in Hamburg, published a set of six sonatas for
two violins, viola da gamba, and continuo.
Buxtehude's Op. 1 collection of sonatas is a bit
unusual in that it contains seven sonatas. Most
collections of pieces from the period included either
six or twelve works; however, Buxtehude appears to have
particularly enjoyed the number seven. He wrote a
collection of seven suites, each one depicting one of
the known planets, and his Membra Jesu Nostri is a
collection of seven cantatas. Each sonata in Op. 1 is
in a different key and the key layout for the
collection makes a diatonic scale ascending from F.
The sonatas are all in several sections mostly
alternating fast and slow movements. The length of each
section varies considerably from as few as three
measures to as many as 100 measures. Buxtehude was
particularly noted for a style of writing known as the
stylus phantasticus; this style of writing often
involves chaotic rhapsodic passage work which is meant
to appear improvised. This style may also include rapid
changes of mood or texture. All of these features are
apparent in these sonatas. Like in Buxtehude's
Praeludia for organ, these sonatas also often alternate
sections with free rhapsodic passage work with
imitative contrapuntal sections. In two instances
Buxtehude also uses variation procedure in these
sonatas. The second sonata in G major ends with a set
of variations on an "arioso," while the fourth sonata,
in B flat major, begins with a series of variations
above a three-and-one-half-measure ground bass.
Source: AllMusic
(https://www.allmusic.com/composition/sonatas-7-trio-so
natas-for-2-violins-viola-da-gamba-harpsichord-op-1-bux
wv-252-258-mc0002574394).
Although originally written for Violin, Viola da Gamba
& Harpsichord, I created this Interpretation of the
Trio Sonata in Bb Major (BuxWV 255) for String Trio
(Violin, Viola & Cello).
