A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Buxtehude, Dietrich
BUXTEHUDE, Dietrich, a celebrated organist and composer, born 1637 at Helsingör, Denmark, where his father Johann was organist of the Olai-church. The father died Jan. 22, 1674, in his 72nd year. It is not known whether the son received his thorough musical education from his father or not. In April 1668 he obtained the post of organist at the Marien-Kirche of Lübeck—one of the best and most lucrative in Germany—where his admirable playing and promising abilities excited much attention. Here his energy and skill at once found their proper field. Not content with discharging his duties at the organ, he conceived the idea of instituting great musical performances in connection with the church services, and in 1673 started the 'Abendmusiken,' or evening performances, on which Lübeck peculiarly prided itself. They took place annually, on the five Sundays before Christmas, beginning between four and five o'clock, after the afternoon service, and consisted of concerted pieces of sacred music for orchestra and chorus—the former improved and the latter formed by Buxtehude—and organ performances. In such efforts Buxtehude was well seconded by his fellow citizens. The musical evenings continued throughout the 18th century, and even into the 19th. Further particulars by them are given by Spitta in his 'Life of J. S. Bach' (i. 253, from Möller's 'Cimbria Litterata,' and Conrad von Höveln's 'Beglücktern und geschmücktem Lübeck'); Matheson also mentions them in his 'Volkommene Kapellmeister.' The best testimony to Buxtehude's greatness is contained in the fact of Sebastian Bach having made a journey of fifty miles on foot that he might become personally acquainted with the Lübeck concerts. In fact Buxtehude became the great musical centre for the North of Europe, and the young musicians flocked around him. Amongst these was Nicolas Bruhns, who excelled Buxtehude himself both in composition and in organ-playing.
Buxtehude ended his active and deservedly famous life May 9, 1707. His strength lay in his free organ compositions (i. e. pieces not founded on chorals), and generally in instrumental music, pure and simple, and not based on a poetical idea. These, though now antiquated, are remarkable as the earliest assertion of the principle of pure instrumental music, which was afterwards so fully developed by Bach. In treatment of chorales on the organ Buxtehude was not equal to the school of Pachelbel; but to judge him from one side only would be unfair. A list of his published works, corrected from Gerber, is given by Spitta ('J. S. Bach,' i. 258, note). These include the 'Abendmusiken' from 1678–87, and occasional pieces, many of them published at Lübeck during his lifetime.
Earlier instrumental compositions Spitta was not able to discover; Matheson also complained that of Buxtehude's clavier pieces, in which his principal strength lay, few if any existed. A collection of seven 'Claviersuiten' mentioned by Matheson (Volk. Kapellmeister, 130), 'in which the nature and character of the planets are agreeably expressed,' exists probably only in MS. In later times fourteen 'Choral-Bearbeitungen' were edited by Dehn (Peters). Commer ('Musica Sacra,' i. No. 8), G. W. Korner, Busby (Hist, of Music), and A. G. Ritter ('Kunst des Orgelspiels'), have also published separate pieces of his.