Prelude in g, BuxWV 148

Following early posts in his native Denmark, Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) became organist at the Marienkirche in Lübeck, where he remained for the last 40 years of his life. Even as the economic fortunes of this North German trading center dwindled, Lübeck still enjoyed one of the richest musical lives of any European city. Buxtehude’s stature drew musicians from all over; it was to meet and hear Buxtehude that the young Sebastian Bach made his famous pilgrimage from Arnstadt—over 400 km on foot, so the story goes. Apart from some sacred vocal music, Buxtehude is best known today for his many organ compositions exploring the “fantastic style,” as in the Prelude in G minor, BuxWV 148.
Musical evidence suggests this prelude stems from Buxtehude’s mature period. The piece includes five sections connected by substantial motivic links. Three fugues are framed by an opening toccata and a chaconne at the end. The toccata sets out the principle neighbor-note theme amidst various rising and falling scales, ending on the inconclusive dominant harmony. The first fugue takes the neighbor-note theme as a subject for close counterpoint. The next section presents a more substantial four-voice fugue covering about thirty measures. This subject does not recall the opening theme; instead, it is marked by chromaticism and dissonant leaps (including a diminished 7th leap that sounds incredibly similar to the Kyrie fugue from Mozart’s Requiem). A short linking episode in chorale style ushers in an even longer fugue. Finally, in a grand culmination, Buxtehude places a chaconne: seven statements of a repeating baseline decorated with ornamentation above. Because of his virtuosic pedal skills, Buxtehude was a natural at this style of composition. Although the chaconne starts in G minor, it easily slides into the relative major (B-flat) before a one-bar extension allows for a seamless cadence back in the home key. Such a chaconne, occurring after several motivically-linked fugues, exemplifies Buxtehude’s importance in Baroque organ writing. Upon such evidence, it is clear why Bach, Handel, and others undertook long journeys to hear him perform in person.

(c) Jason Stell