The liturgical function of Buxtehude’s organ works
Het
ORGEL 104 (2008), nr. 1, xx-xx [summary]
Many organists in large North-German city churches improvised in the
services, but compositions were also written down for the use of
organists who did not improvise. Little can be said with certainty
about the relationship between Buxtehude’s improvisations and
his written-out compositions. That Buxtehude’s organ works
were intended for liturgical use, among other uses, is practically
undisputed. But there is disagreement about how the compositions were
used within the liturgy. Using information from church regulations and
from two orders of service from Hamburg (1607) and Danzig (1705) we can
presume that music not based on a chorale was used as a postlude to
services. It is questionable whether Buxtehude’s chorale
settings functioned as preludes; they may just as well have functioned
as organ verses in alternatim use. The large chorale fantasies may have
sounded between the reading of the gospel and the sermon. They may also
have been used as musica sub communione, but the chorales on which they
are based are seldom specific to communion. There are no sources
indicating that the chorale fantasies were played in the Abendmusiken.
