Dieterich Buxtehude - "Passacaglia" BuxWV 161

One of the three "ostinato" works for organ by the danish born Master Dieterich Buxtehude (the others being two "ciaccone": the first, in C Minor, BuxWV 159; the second, in E Minor, BuxWV 160), the "Passacaglia" is an authentic masterpiece of baroque Music, and was passed down to us thanks to the "Hans Andreas Bach Buch", a famous manuscript where it had been previously copied, and Philipp Spitta's 1875 first volume edition of Buxtehude's organ works. Its structure is clearly understood as being in four sections (D Minor, F Major, A Minor, D Minor), each of which with seven variations. As Walter Kraft put it, "there is little difference between the 'chaconne' and the 'passacaglia'; the first, however, is a dance, whereas the second is a march; the 'passacaglia' is generally slower and less freely written, and the accent does not fall on the second beat of the bar (as in the 'chaconne')" (Ap. Comentary to the "Complete Organ Music", Buxtehude, Walter Kraft, 6 Cds, December 1957 - Marienkirche, Lübeck). J.J.Rousseau in his famous "Dictionnaire de Musique", Tome I, p. 415, éd. Art et Culture, Paris, 1977), wrote: "Passacaille, s. f.. Espèce de chaconne dont le chant est plus tendre et le mouvement plus lent que dans les chaconnes ordinaires (...)" The issue is far from being solved, needless to say that Brahms called "chaconne" Buxtehude's "Passacaglia" (which he deeply admired)... (Letter to Ph. Spitta). We can read a few "astronomical" interpretaions of this great musical creation, since Buxtehude sometimes seemed to think of the Cosmos when producing his free organ music.
Temperament: Werckmeister III

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Baroque
• Organ
• Music
• Musique
• Musik
• Muziek
• Dieterich
• Buxtehude
• Passacaglia
• BuxWV
• 161
• Gilberto
• Guarino

[tigerkillslion]

Der Vogel kämpft sich aus dem Ei. Das Ei ist die Welt. Wer geboren werden will, muß eine Welt zerstören.

[GilbertoGuarino]

@tigerkillslion

Vogel als Prophet...

[GilbertoGuarino]

@tigerkillslion

"Der Vogel Fliegt zu Gott. Der Gott heisst Abraxas."

[gbshoes]

Complimenti! Gran bella esecuzione. Pezzo stupendo!

[GilbertoGuarino]

@gbshoes

Grazie mille. È davvero un brano geniale. Capolavoro.

[HappyHumanism]

Came here because of "Demian" by Hermann Hesse, thoroughly impressed.

[DaveMoustache]

The beginning reminded me very much of Bach's Passacaglia!

[steerminator]

You play this masterfully. And this song is awesome.

[jorgealbertobaron]

375 años de nacido en 2012 dice JORGE ALBERTO BARON desde Bogotá, Colombia, Suramérica. Aniversarios Grandes Compositores 2012. Dieterich Buxtehude. 375 años de nacido en 2012. Nació en 1637. Favor escuchar toda su música en 2012.

[turtlefur7]

@HappyHumanism

Its nice to know there are Herman Hesse fans about and that we are united by him and Buxtehud's music! He would be happy to know this!

[turbonelli]

@Namaste33 Dietrich had no intentions of his music being easy to play.

[GilbertoGuarino]

@DaveMoustache

This kind of "ostinato" pedal part is typical of an organ passacaglia and ciaccona (Buxtehude composed two ciaccone: BuxWV 159 - id C minor - and BuxWV 160 - in E minor; and one passacaglia: Bux WV 161 - in D minor).

[DaveMoustache]

@GilbertoGuarino Is that pedal part typical for the passacaglia form? I have only heard Bach's, Händel's and this one (that I know of), and they kind of have the same progression in the bass. I don't really know much music theory, but I definately new to check out some more Buxtehude :)

[GilbertoGuarino]

@DaveMoustache

This is due probably to the pedal part. The Passacaglia is one of the three "ostinati" composed by Dieterich Buxtehude, the other two being the ciaccone BuxWV 159 e BuxWV 160.