It is interesting that Dietrich Buxtehude should today be known almost exclusively as a composer of organ music—the finest before J.S. Bach appeared on the scene a generation or two later—as Buxtehude actually spent much more of his time composing sacred vocal works and chamber music than he did writing for his own instrument. There was also a large and widely-admired body of harpsichord music, but none of it was published during Buxtehude's lifetime, and history with all its inscrutable whims has not seen fit to hand down very much of it. All of Buxtehude's extant harpsichord music was preserved in a single manuscript. There are just under 20 suites and several variations sets, one of which is BuxWV 250, a set of 32 variations on the well-known tune La capricciosa.

The aria, or theme, of BuxWV 250 is an eight-bar miniature binary (4+4) thing; each half is repeated. The work shouldn't really be called, as it sometimes is, a "theme and 32 variations"—for there are in fact 32 statements of the theme altogether, including the initial introductory one (rather, call it 32 variations or theme and 31 variations). Buxtehude proves inventive at making derivatives of the basic tune. He maintains the framework of the theme throughout his variations and uses various figures and rhythmic saturations to build interest. There are running sixteenth and eventually thirty-second notes, snappy dotted rhythms and some rapid off beats; there is light imitation between voices, and there are a few variations that move into triple or compound meter (3/8, 6/8, and 12/8) and grow more dance-worthy. In the final variation, speedy, flaming scales in the bass get the spotlight as the right hand offers steady chords to move inexorably toward a bright close.

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