![]() After the Beloved has been found, a freely composed dialogue arises between the two voices, an operatic love duet which is crowned by the ecstatic 6/8 meter of the conclusion So lieben die Seele und Jesus zusammenSie brennen und stehen in lieblichen Flammen. The text is strophic, but Buxtehude only sets the beginning, the monologue of the searching soul, as a song with uncomplicated alternation between the soprano, accompanied only by the continuo, and the strings. This dialogue between Christ and the faithful soul, sung respectively by bass and soprano, is based on a paraphrase of a familiar text from the Song of Songs, referring to the lost beloved (Christ in this context). This Ciacona was written in the 1670s in contrast, the Dialogus inter Christum et fidelem animam, Wo ist doch mein Freund geblieben? (BuxWV 111) is a late work of the 1690s. ![]() the swaying triplets at meines Herzens Trost (the comfort of my heart). Above this unchanging bass line, the soprano engages in lively exchanges with the two violins, including much word-painting, e.g. In contrast, Buxtehudes setting is a fashionable, graceful Ciacona, with a repeated six-note bass motive – a compositional technique which originated in Italian secular music. The enormous range of texts, compositional techniques, and settings – from intimate solo cantatas to large-scale works – suggests that he enjoyed a good deal of artistic freedom. A good example of this is provided by Buxtehudes setting, BuxWV 38, of the Psalm text Herr, wenn ich nur dich habe (Psalm 73, verse 25-26), a beloved funerary text in seventeenth-century Germany, usually set as a solemn motet. His surviving compositions include not only a large quantity of organ and harpsichord works, but also a number of string sonatas and some 120 cantatas. The most important member of this second generation was Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707), who was most probably a student of Scheidemann, and who succeeded Franz Tunder in the post of organist at the Marienkirche of Lbeck from 1668 until his death. Freed from the confines of liturgical requirements, they therefore chose texts, both Latin and German, which offered numerous opportunities for expressive composition: specially chosen excerpts from the Bible (strikingly often those dealing with suffering and death) and devotional texts, many of which were strongly mystic or pietistic in tone. They assembled a group (usually a small one) of singers and instrumentalists around the organ for the performance of refined, erudite vocal music, strongly inspired by concertante church music from Italy. But at the same time as this generation, typified by Jacob Praetorius, Heinrich Scheidemann, Melchior Schildt, and others, concentrated primarily on the organ as a medium for performance and composition, their students, in turn, took things a step further. The foundation had been laid by the teachings of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621), who had brought an entire generation of North German organists to this exalted level. ![]() Some of this is due to the exceptional status which had been achieved by organists in cities like Hamburg and Lbeck in the course of the century they had become both virtuosi par excellence, and at the same time learned composers. Death and Devotion Cantatas by Tunder, Weckmann, Buxtehude, and Ritter It is a remarkable fact that the most expressive and original vocal church music composed in Northern Germany during the latter half of the seventeenth century was the work not of cantors, but of organists.
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