The present investigation deals with the cantatas of Dietrich Buxtehude written for three voice parts with instrumental accompaniment. An examination of the various musical forms which Buxtehude employed in these cantatas will comprise one of the two areas in this study. The other area shall be concerned with Buxtehude's usage of word painting (i.e., musical portrayal of word meanings). Before entering an investigation of Buxtehude's music, his life and background should be considered.

Thesis (M.M.)--Boston University

Since the late seventeenth century, Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) has been acknowledged as one of the great organists and composers of the North German tradition. Nowadays, his free organ preludes are considered both as examples of the Stylus Phantasticus, and also as the repertoire in which he developed most of his innovations. My goal is to analyze these works, interpreting the preludes' pitch and textural organization in terms of seventeenth-century music theory, in order to incorporate an awareness of the organist's perspective, and to further the appreciation of Buxtehude's contributions to the organ tradition of his time. Most of the analyses of the preludes written during the past 34 years have focused on explicating their texture, and pitch organization in terms of eighteenth-century tonality as well as the seventeenth-century tradition of musical rhetoric. In contrast, William Porter (1986) and Geoffrey Webber (2007) have analyzed the preludes in terms of a theoretical system contemporary to Buxtehude: the psalm-tone tonalities. Their analyses also draw on Harold Powers's theory (1981) regarding the transition from psalm tones to keys, which proposes an alternative system of church tones based on the organ practice of the early seventeenth century. In my analysis of Buxtehude's free organ preludes I aim to build on these insights and study the musical content in contemporary terms, by integrating a church-tone analysis of the pitch organization with a rhetorical analysis of the texture. My findings suggest an awareness of the church tones as an organizing factor in the preludes' compositional process.

abstract: Dieterich Buxtehude (ca. 1637-1707) is known for his many organ works. However, no significant portion of his choral music is in the standard performing repertoire. Buxtehude's large-scale choral work Membra Jesu Nostri should be considered a seminal "passion" composition in part because of its historic position in early German Lutheran church music. It also serves as an example of the heightened levels of affect in a seventeenth century devotional passion. To better understand Buxtehude and his music, an overview of his life, career and religious beliefs are discussed, including the incorporation of pietism and mysticism in his cantata, Membra Jesu Nostri. Details of the composition's structure, unifying thematic elements and text sources with translations are included. Historical performance practices are discussed, including the composer's probable intent of having one of the seven cantatas performed every day before Easter. This research study also provides conductors with a variety of practical performance considerations. Through these observations, it will be shown that Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri is one of the most well-conceived and well-constructed choral works of the early Baroque era. / Dissertation/Thesis / D.M.A. Music 2012

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Thesis (D.M.A.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 126-129).

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The idea behind this project emerged while I was making organ recordings for a school project. The relation between the musician, the sound technicians and the producer was an issue that called for my attention. The influence of this specific environment on the performer and the music itself, comparing it to a live performance, and the search for possible differences in musical interpretation and performance constitute the main focus of this work. It is composed of four major parts. The first part of the background reflects on the essential aspects of this subject and also offers some historical examples and quotations from important musicians and other personalities. The second part refers to the artistic part of this work. It describes the organ in Norrfjärden, where the recordings have been made, its historical background and special characteristics. The chosen repertoire was the major organ work “Nun freut euch lieben Christen g´mein”, composed by Dieterich Buxtehude. The section on this work goes from a biography of the composer, through considerations on the text and theological background of the hymn, to the musical analysis of the piece, also focusing on my own artistic choices. The third section of this thesis is the result of the investigation made, leading to a conclusion. Finally, the artistic part is composed of three different recordings of the same piece, at the same instrument, with the same performer, but with varying recording conditions. The first recording is a live concert version, the second an unedited version, where the performer plays the music only to the microphones without any audience or studio production, the third is a produced version, where the performance is generally guided by the producer, who also does the final editing. / <p>Validerat; 20110125 (lewe)</p>

The thesis deals with the birth of the Baroque cantata in Northern and Central Germany. It introduces musical forms that led to the creation of cantata and thus significantly influenced its form, which crystalized during the Late Baroque period. The picture of Early Baroque German music is completed with profiles of three principal composers, on a selection of whose works the gradual development of this new musical form - the German Baroque cantata - is demonstrated. The second part is devoted to an analysis of a work representative of this style, Dietrich Buxtehude's Membra Jesu nostri, which is a supreme example of this musical form.