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Buxtehude: Suites In C Major And D Minor, Etc / Lars Ulrik Mortensen
Naxos

Buxtehude: Suites In C Major And D Minor, Etc / Lars Ulrik Mortensen

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Details

Composer
BUXTEHUDE, DIETRICH
Artist
Lars-Ulrik Mortensen
Format
CD
Label
Naxos
Released
Mar 25, 2008
Catalog #
8570579
UPC
747313057979

About

The suites offered here present the intimate, domestic aspect of Buxtehude’s keyboard art. In each case, the allemande is the weightiest element, “the proposition in a musical suite, from which the corrente, sarabande and gique [sic] flow as parts”, in the words of Buxtehude’s grandstudent Martin Heinrich Fuhrmann. Indeed, the openings of Buxtehude’s correnti often follow the melodic contour of the allemande, and in the case of the Suite in F major, BuxWV 238, the corrente approaches an actual variation of it. The Ryge manuscript usually spells this movement “Courent” in a curious mixture of French and Italian; in fact Buxtehude usually follows the Italian corrente, with its lightly running quaver motion, rather than the more subtle French courante. Fuhrmann characterizes the sarabande as an “instrumental aria, usually eight measures, going slowly in triple”, and this is the shortest and simplest movement of a Buxtehude suite. Two of the present suites (BuxWV 226 and 233) offer a second sarabande that is not a double, or variation, of the first. The second sarabande of BuxWV 233 has a distinctly vocal quality, as opposed to the more instrumental stile brisé of the first. The gigues in Buxtehude’s suites have a more contrapuntal texture than the other movements, but they are not strictly fugal, usually dissolving into homophony after a few entrances. It is through the gigue, however, that the dance makes itself most strongly felt in the other genres of Buxtehude’s keyboard music.

The set of three variations named simply Aria, BuxWV 249, are based on the sarabande. Its second and third variations contain written-out varied repetitions of each of the sections of the binary form, demonstrating how Buxtehude might actually have performed those repetitions that he normally indicated only with repeat marks.

Buxtehude’s chorale settings for keyboard are preserved mainly in manuscripts compiled by Johann Gottfried Walther, organist in Weimar and cousin of J. S. Bach. Although most of them require two manuals and pedal, a few do not, and there is no reason why they should be confined to the church organ. One in particular seems appropriate for performance on the harpsichord: the Partita: Auf meinen lieben Gott, BuxWV 179. Here Buxtehude combines three genres, the dance suite, the variation set, and the chorale setting, to produce an unusual hybrid form, consisting of Allemande (unnamed), Double, Courante, Sarabande, and Gigue. Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BuxWV 223, belongs to the genre of the chorale fantasy, in which each phrase of a chorale melody is developed rather extensively in a different manner. Here too the gigue makes a prominent appearance, concluding the work in a fugal treatment of the entire melody.

Buxtehude’s free keyboard works - those independent of a preexisting melody or dance pattern - are mainly transmitted in manuscripts that include both pedaliter and manualiter works. Among these, his most original and justly famous works are praeludia and toccatas in the stylus phantasticus, which intermingles highly unpredictable free sections in virtuosic and idiomatic keyboard styles with more structured fugal sections. Since organists naturally prefer the pedaliter works, those for manuals alone are much less frequently performed, thus offering rich opportunities to adventurous harpsichordists. Even in these free works one can find elements of dance and variation. In place of a second fugue, the Toccata in G major, BuxWV 165, contains a brief passage of ostinato variations that are faintly reminiscent of Pachelbel’s famous canon. Buxtehude may have conceived his canzonas as teaching pieces; they are all manualiter works, and students most often practised on the clavichord or harpsichord. They are variously titled canzon, canzonet, or fuga and consist either of a single fugue (BuxWV 225) or of three related fugues (BuxWV 166 and 176) in the manner of the variation canzona inherited from Frescobaldi and Froberger. The gigue makes an appearance yet again as the second fugue of BuxWV 166.

Kerala Snyder

Tracklist 20 tracks

  1. 1 Toccata in G Major, BuxWV 165 05:15
    Track
    1
    Title
    Toccata in G Major, BuxWV 165
    Duration
    05:15
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  2. 2 Wie schon leuchtet der Morgenstern, BuxWV 223 08:06
    Track
    2
    Title
    Wie schon leuchtet der Morgenstern, BuxWV 223
    Duration
    08:06
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  3. 3 I. Allemande d'Amour 03:07
    Track
    3
    Title
    I. Allemande d'Amour
    Duration
    03:07
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  4. 4 II. Courante 01:31
    Track
    4
    Title
    II. Courante
    Duration
    01:31
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  5. 5 III. Sarabande d'Amour - Sarabande 03:15
    Track
    5
    Title
    III. Sarabande d'Amour - Sarabande
    Duration
    03:15
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  6. 6 IV. Gigue 01:35
    Track
    6
    Title
    IV. Gigue
    Duration
    01:35
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  7. 7 Fugue in B-Flat Major, BuxWV 176 04:10
    Track
    7
    Title
    Fugue in B-Flat Major, BuxWV 176
    Duration
    04:10
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  8. 8 I. Allemande 02:49
    Track
    8
    Title
    I. Allemande
    Duration
    02:49
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  9. 9 II. Courante 01:47
    Track
    9
    Title
    II. Courante
    Duration
    01:47
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  10. 10 III. Sarabande [I] - Sarabande II 02:54
    Track
    10
    Title
    III. Sarabande [I] - Sarabande II
    Duration
    02:54
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  11. 11 IV. Gigue 01:32
    Track
    11
    Title
    IV. Gigue
    Duration
    01:32
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  12. 12 Variatio I 02:15
    Track
    12
    Title
    Variatio I
    Duration
    02:15
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  13. 13 Variatio II 02:08
    Track
    13
    Title
    Variatio II
    Duration
    02:08
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  14. 14 Variatio III 01:14
    Track
    14
    Title
    Variatio III
    Duration
    01:14
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  15. 15 Canzona in C Major, BuxWV 166 04:09
    Track
    15
    Title
    Canzona in C Major, BuxWV 166
    Duration
    04:09
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  16. 16 I. [Allemande] - Double 02:08
    Track
    16
    Title
    I. [Allemande] - Double
    Duration
    02:08
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  17. 17 II. Courante 00:37
    Track
    17
    Title
    II. Courante
    Duration
    00:37
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  18. 18 III. Sarabande 01:08
    Track
    18
    Title
    III. Sarabande
    Duration
    01:08
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  19. 19 IV. Gigue 00:43
    Track
    19
    Title
    IV. Gigue
    Duration
    00:43
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen
  20. 20 Canzonetta in A Minor, BuxWV 225 01:35
    Track
    20
    Title
    Canzonetta in A Minor, BuxWV 225
    Duration
    01:35
    Composer
    Dieterich Buxtehude
    Performer
    Lars Ulrik Mortensen