page_title: Dieterich Buxtehude
section_title: Preludes and toccatas
hierarchical_section_title: Dieterich Buxtehude / Works / Keyboard works / Preludes and toccatas
caption_attribution_description: Musical quotation from Prelude in F major, BuxWV 145, by Dieterich Buxtehude (c1637–1707). Made using Sibelius 4 by Jashiin. The music quoted is in the public domain, and the image is hereby released into the public domain by Jashiin.
context_page_description: Dieterich Buxtehude was a Danish-German organist and composer of the Baroque period. His organ works represent a central part of the standard organ repertoire and are frequently performed at recitals and in church services. He composed in a wide variety of vocal and instrumental idioms, and his style strongly influenced many composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach, his student. Today, Buxtehude is considered one of the most important composers in Germany of the mid-Baroque.
context_section_description: The nineteen organ praeludia (or preludes) form the core of Buxtehude's work and are ultimately considered his most important contributions to the music literature of the seventeenth century. They are sectional compositions that alternate between free improvisation and strict counterpoint. They are usually either fugues or pieces written in fugal manner; all make heavy use of pedal and are idiomatic to the organ. These preludes, together with pieces by Nicolaus Bruhns, represent the highest point in the evolution of the north German organ prelude, and the so-called stylus phantasticus. They were undoubtedly among the influences of J.S. Bach, whose organ preludes, toccatas and fugues frequently employ similar techniques.
  The preludes are quite varied in style and structure, and are therefore hard to categorize, as no two praeludia are alike. The texture of Buxtehude's praeludia can be described as either free or fugal. They consist of strict diatonic harmony and secondary dominants. Structure-wise, there usually is an introductory section, a fugue and a postlude, but this basic scheme is very frequently expanded: both BuxWV 137 and BuxWV 148 include a full-fledged chaconne along with fugal and toccata-like writing in other sections, BuxWV 141 includes two fugues, sections of imitative counterpoint and parts with chordal writing. Buxtehude's praeludia are not circular, nor is there a recapitulation. A fugal theme, when it recurs, does so in a new, changed way. A few pieces are smaller in scope; for example, BuxWV 144, which consists only of a brief improvisatory prelude followed by a longer fugue. The sections may be explicitly separated in the score or flow one into another, with one ending and the other beginning in the same bar. The texture is almost always at least three-voice, with many instances of four-voice polyphony and occasional sections in five voices (BuxWV 150 being one of the notable examples, with five-voice structure in which two of the voices are taken by the pedal).
  The introductory sections are always improvisatory. The preludes begin almost invariably with a single motif in one of the voices which is then treated imitatively for a bar or two. After this the introduction will most commonly elaborate on this motif or a part of it, or on a short melodic germ which is passed from voice to voice in three- or four-voice polyphonic writing, as seen in Example 1:
  Occasionally the introduction will engage in parallel 3rds, 6ths, etc. For example, BuxWV 149 begins with a single voice, proceeds to parallel counterpoint for nine bars and then segues into the kind of texture described above. The improvisatory interludes, free sections and postludes may all employ a vast array of techniques, from miscellaneous kinds of imitative writing (the technique discussed above, or "fugues" that dissolve into homophonic writing, etc.) to various forms of non-motivic interaction between voices (arpeggios, chordal style, figuration over pedal point, etc.). Tempo marks are frequently present: Adagio sections written out in chords of whole- and half-notes, Vivace and Allegro imitative sections, and others.
  The number of fugues in a prelude varies from one to three, not counting the pseudo-fugal free sections. The fugues normally employ four voices with extensive use of pedal. Most subjects are of medium length (see Example 2), frequently with some degree of repercussion (note repeating, particularly in BuxWV 148 and BuxWV 153), wide leaps or simplistic runs of 16th notes. One of the notable exceptions is a fugue in BuxWV 145, which features a six-bar subject. The answers are usually tonal, on scale degrees 1 and 5, and there is little real modulation. Stretto and parallel entries may be employed, with particular emphasis on the latter. Short and simple countersubjects appear, and may change their form slightly during the course of the fugue. In terms of structure, Buxtehude's fugues are a series of expositions, with non-thematic material appearing quite rarely, if ever. There is some variation, however, in the way they are constru
caption: Example 1: This is the introduction from Prelude in F major, BuxWV 145. The motivic interaction seen here, in which a short motif is passing from one voice to another, sometimes sounding in two voices simultaneously, was frequently employed by Buxtehude in his preludes, frequently expanded to four voices with heavy use of pedal.