Dietrich Buxtehude › BuxWV 140
Prelude in D minor
Scores on IMSLP
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Complete Score (EU) · 0.20 MB, 7 pp. · IMSLP #924902
PDF on IMSLP ↗IMSLP work page ↗
How to play
- Registration
- Plenum without 16' in the manuals for clarity in the fugue subject; add 16' for the closing toccata. Pedal: Principal 16'+8' with light reed.
- Tempo
- Opening free; fugue in a steady moderato — the subject's leaps need space to register. Resist accelerating into the final cadence.
- Articulation
- Crisp articulation on the fugue subject's leaps; treat the head motive as a rhetorical gesture, not a smooth line.
- Ornamentation
- Trills at structural cadences only; the figuration is its own ornamentation.
Historical context
The D minor praeludium balances dramatic toccata writing with a fugue whose subject is unusually angular for Buxtehude. The piece sits well as recital or service opener — long enough to establish weight, short enough not to overstay.
Structure
1 movement in 5 sections (120 bars)