This praeludium in F major looks much more like a prelude and fugue than the typical Buxtehude praeludium. It consists of two section, a free toccata-like section and a fugue section. Unlike the typical Buxtehude fugue section, the fugue never breaks down into free rhapsodic material. Also the free section comes to a full stop before the fugue starts. Buxtehude's fondness for motivic connections between sections is still manifest in the piece in that the material from the second measure of the fugue subject is not all too dissimilar from the opening of the free section.

© Andrus Madsen, Rovi