Album

This double-disc set offers a group of Buxtehude organ works, opening with the celebrated Praeludium in C major, BuxWV 137, performed on a magnificent Swedish organ tuned in so-called mean-tone tuning. The booklet, which contains a good deal of fascinating information about Buxtehude and about the role organs played in North Germany's mercantile society, might have addressed for general listeners exactly what mean-tone tuning is, but organists have a tendency to speak to their own kind with their recordings. Mean-tone tuning, in a word, is based on perfectly tuned major thirds rather than on the perfect fifths from which earlier tuning systems were mostly derived, and which gave birth to the circle-of-fifths theoretical concept that beginning musicians still learn today. It takes its name from the fact that the whole step in this system is defined as the mean between the two tones of a major third. The "advantage" of mean-tone tuning is that the big major chords of Buxtehude's music have an unusually pure, bright quality. The "disadvantages" are that 1) keys sound different from one another (the problem Bach's equal temperament sought to eliminate) and 2) the fifths are less than perfect to various degrees. The listener will also notice that some of the leading tones have a low-hanging quality, resting further from the tonic and seeming distinct from it rather than drawing toward it strongly. Scholars will have to decide whether organist Hans Davidsson's blanket conclusion that Buxtehude would have used an organ with this tuning, even though several pieces have to be transposed to avoid the delightfully named "wolf" intervals (bad fifths), is justified. But the average listener will find his renditions extremely interesting. The tuning introduces a high degree of contrast into Buxtehude's music that is absent from equal-temperament recordings—the big pieces like the opening prelude seem luxuriant in their consonances, while the more meditative chorale-based short pieces have a correspondingly intense murky quality. And the relationship between Buxtehude and Bach, which the modern listener tends to think of as close, is somewhat redefined by this disc. The music here seems, more so than usual, to embody a kind of free drama that Bach discarded in favor of more rational procedures. The great Swedish organ is beautifully recorded, and the registrants and bellows treaders are not only credited but also shown in a photograph. This recording will be of interest to anyone whose attention has ever been snared by Buxtehude's monumental organ music.

© James Manheim, Rovi

CD 1 of 2
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Praeludium in C, BuxWV137 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
1	Praeludium in C, BuxWV137	6:07			$0.99
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Canzonetta in G, BuxWV171 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
2	Canzonetta in G, BuxWV171	2:44			$0.99
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Praeludium in Phrygian Mode, BuxWV152 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
3	Praeludium in Phrygian Mode, BuxWV152	5:27			$0.99
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Canzonetta in C, BuxWV167 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
4	Canzonetta in C, BuxWV167	1:21			$0.99
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BuxWV211 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
5	Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BuxWV211	2:34			$0.99
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, BuxWV189 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
6	Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, BuxWV189	1:56			$0.99
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, BuxWV188 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
7	Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, BuxWV188	9:34			$1.49
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist, BuxWV209 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
8	Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist, BuxWV209	3:10			$0.99
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Praeludium in G-, BuxWV149 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
9	Praeludium in G-, BuxWV149	9:56			$1.49
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist, BuxWV208 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
10	Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist, BuxWV208	3:42			$0.99
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Auf meinen lieben Gott, BuxWV179 Work 5:10 Hans Davidsson Organ
11	1.Allemande	1:03			$0.99
12	2.Double	1:01			$0.99
13	3.Sarabande	1:17			$0.99
14	4.Courante	0:54			$0.99
15	5.Gigue	0:55			$0.99
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Praeludium in G-, BuxWV163 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
16	Praeludium in G-, BuxWV163	8:42			$1.49
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BuxWV223 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
17	Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BuxWV223	8:46			$1.49
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Praeludium in D, BuxWV139 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
18	Praeludium in D, BuxWV139	6:31			$0.99
CD 2 of 2
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Praeludium in D-, BuxWV140 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
1	Praeludium in D-, BuxWV140	6:52			$0.99
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BuxWV196 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
2	Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BuxWV196	4:17			$0.99
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Praeludium G, BuxWV147 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
3	Praeludium G, BuxWV147	4:32			$0.99
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Vater unser in Himmelreich, BuxWV219 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
4	Vater unser in Himmelreich, BuxWV219	3:36			$0.99
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Toccata in F, BuxWV157 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
5	Toccata in F, BuxWV157	6:01			$0.99
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, BuxWV207 Work 9:52 Hans Davidsson Organ
6	Vers 1: Vater unser im Himmelreich	2:32			$0.99
7	Vers 2	1:35			$0.99
8	Vers 3: Vater unser im Himmelreich	3:41			$0.99
9	Vers 4	2:04			$0.99
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Praeludium in A-, BuxWV153 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
10	Praeludium in A-, BuxWV153	7:49			$1.49
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Te Deum laudamus, in the Phrygian mode, BuxWV218 Work 15:46 Hans Davidsson Organ
11	5.Exordium	2:01			$0.99
12	1.Praeludium; 2.Te deum laudamus	3:24			$0.99
13	3.Pleni sunt coeli et terra	5:25			$0.99
14	4.Te Martyrium	1:29			$0.99
15	Tu devicto	3:27			$0.99
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Passacaglia in D-, BuxWV161 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
16	Passacaglia in D-, BuxWV161	6:28			$0.99
Dietrich Buxtehude Composer Toccata in D-, BuxWV155 Work Hans Davidsson Organ
17	Toccata in D-, BuxWV155	8:14			$1.49