Prelude in C Major

Most of Buxtehude’s organ music dates from after his arrival at the Marienkirche, Lübeck (1668), where he spent most of his career. At this time, professional organists were, above all, expected to be fluent improvisers. Works like this Prelude in C Major (BuxWV137) may well have been intended less for public performance than as a guide for pupils and other would-be improvisers. At the opening, deep, bold, rhetorical gestures on the pedals are answered by pithy chordal responses and dashing flourishes from left and right hands. A short, jerky theme is then tossed between the hands, before a more spontaneous dialogue between hands and feet resumes. This leads to a more complex (fugal) theme shared and developed by all three parts. No ideas are allowed to fully solidify until the final section, where changing patterns on the keyboards are strongly underpinned by a jaunty, repeating melody in the bass (chaconne)—dramatically rounded off with an echo of the opening.