Dietrich Buxtehude

Though his entire career was confined to Denmark and Hanseatic Lübeck, such was Buxtehude's reputation as an organist that J.S. Bach made a round trip of some 500 miles on foot to hear him. Buxtehude also produced some of the most original music of the 17th century. Thought to have been born in Denmark circa 1657, for four decades he occupied the organ loft of St. Mary’s Church, Lübeck. His increasingly ambitious evening concerts (Abendmusiken) attracted attention throughout Europe; and, as arguably the greatest organist of his age, Buxtehude lavished the fruits of the freewheeling stylus fantasticus (fantastic style) on his often flamboyant keyboard works. His sonatas for violin, viola da gamba and harpsichord published during the 1690s as “Op. 1” and “Op. 2” disclose a more private world of soulful soliloquising, tempered by jovial bonhomie. Membra Jesu Nostri (1680), a cycle of seven cantatas contemplating the body of the crucified Christ, remains a high point in an extensive and varied vocal legacy. After his death in 1707, Buxtehude’s reputation diminished, but, spearheaded by Brahms, his fortunes revived as the 19th century rediscovered a forgotten past.