Dietrich Buxtehude › BuxWV 149
Prelude in G minor
Scores on IMSLP
PDFs are hosted by IMSLP. Choose an edition or open its IMSLP work page.
Complete Score (EU) · 0.25 MB, 9 pp. · IMSLP #924912
PDF on IMSLP ↗IMSLP work page ↗
How to play
- Registration
- Plenum 16'/8'/4'/Mixture in the toccata; pull the 16' off the manuals for the fugue; reed (Trumpet 8' or Posaune 16') in pedal for the closing pedal point.
- Tempo
- Free in the opening; fugue at a brisk but not frantic tempo — the running sixteenths must articulate.
- Articulation
- Strong rhetorical articulation throughout. The pedal solo passages benefit from a slightly more legato touch than the manuals, to project across the texture.
- Ornamentation
- Trills at all major cadences; mordents on accented dissonances in the chromatic transitions.
Historical context
One of the two G-minor preludes, often considered the more substantial. Note the chromatic intensifications in the transition sections — Buxtehude uses chromaticism not for ornament but to mark structural arrival points.
Structure
4 sections Prelude Fugue 1 Allegro Largo (Fugue 2)