Praeludium d-Moll, BuxWV 140

Like many of the works in the North German repertoire known as “Praeludium” or “Toccata”, the Praeludium in D minor, BuxWV 140, by Dietrich Buxtehude (~1637–1707) has a multi-part structure in which improvisatory, free-seeming sections alternate with fugal sections in the manner of the stylus fantasticus. In this stormy, dramatic piece, however, Buxtehude expands the frequently encountered five-part layout (with fugues as the second and fourth sections) to a six-part structure:

The first section, which is richly structured in itself, brings various playing figures in seemingly improvisatory freedom, mostly in semiquaver motion, but with a subcutaneous inner connection – an octave-fifth structure, which is initially mostly played around by runs and figures, but emerges as if naked towards the end and then immediately solidifies into the soggetto of the fugal second section.

This fugue artfully combines the soggetto, characterized by octave leaps and repeated notes, with two counter-subjects, whereby the chromaticism of the first was also prepared in the first section.

The third section brings a clear break in that the previously propulsive energy gives way to a reflective, recitative-like gesture characterized by improvisatory runs, trills and tremolos.

The fourth section initially seems to want to resume the flowing, imitative polyphony of the first fugue, but quickly comes to a standstill and again ends questioningly in the style of the Italian “durezze e ligature”, to which only the fifth section responds with a second fugue.

In this, the soggetto familiar from the second section and the two counter-subjects are heard in a majestically striding triple meter instead of the original four.

The sixth section returns (still in triple meter) to the improvisatory gesture of the first section, whereby the previously dominant downward runs and figures are increasingly countered by upward passages that bring the piece to a monumental, triumphant conclusion.