Hans Mersmann described North German organ music, particularly by Buxtehude and Bruhns, as expressing a "gothic sense of space" through rhapsodic movements and improvised cadences that break from clear architectural forms.
Compositional Technique
North German Baroque organ music is characterized by a tendency for decoration, figuration, strong contrasts between sections, and the interruption of melodic lines by pauses and broken chords.
Compositional Technique
Unlike the tightly-crafted compositions of Bach, works by Buxtehude and Nicolaus Bruhns (a pupil of Buxtehude) titled "Prelude and Fugue" often consist of strings of independent, toccata-like sections linked by short fugues.
Composer Biography
Bach requested one month's leave for his journey to hear Buxtehude but stayed for three months, deeply impressed by Buxtehude's playing and his Sunday evening recitals, the Abendmusiken.
Composer Biography
Johann Sebastian Bach, at age twenty, walked approximately one hundred miles from Arnstadt to Lübeck to hear Dietrich Buxtehude play and learn from his art.
Historical Context
Baroque organ music in North Germany reached its peak towards the end of the 17th century, leading the rest of the country.
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