Dietrich Buxtehude › BuxWV 137
Prelude in C major
Scores
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![Prelude in C major, BuxWV 137 [#924897].pdf](/files/_pending_vlm/Organ/Buxtehude%2C%20Dietrich/Prelude%20in%20C%20major%2C%20BuxWV%20137/Prelude%20in%20C%20major%2C%20BuxWV%20137%20%5B%23924897%5D.p4.png)
How to play
- Registration
- Full plenum (Principal 16'/8'/4', Mixture) in the toccata sections; reduce to a lighter principal chorus (8'/4') for the fugues; pedal 16'+8' with Posaune 16' for the toccata, lighter pedal for inner sections.
- Tempo
- Toccata sections free, declamatory — let the harmony breathe. Fugue subjects in alla breve feel; the closing toccata recovers the opening grandeur.
- Articulation
- Detached, speech-like touch in toccata passages (early-Baroque non-legato as default). Fugue voices articulated clearly, with light separation between motivic units.
- Ornamentation
- Trills on cadential 7–6 suspensions; mordents on accented dissonances. Improvise a short cadenza-like flourish into the final chord if the acoustic allows.
Historical context
A classic five-section praeludium of the type that defines Buxtehude’s stylus phantasticus: opening pedaliter toccata → first fugue → free transition → second fugue (often in a contrasting metre) → closing toccata. The piece works as a rhetorical argument; each section should feel like a fresh “speech” rather than a continuation of the previous one.
The opening pedaliter flourish was the calling card of the North German organist — it announces the player, the instrument, and the key. Take time over the first chord and let the room respond before launching the figuration.
Structure
1 movement in 3 sections: [Prelude] (35 bars) [Fugue] (39 bars) Ciacona . Presto (29 bars)