Composer Dietrich Buxtehude (1637 to 1707)

During his tenure at St. Mary’s in Lübeck, Dietrich Buxtehude had several successful pupils like Nikolaus Bruhns and his later successor Johann Christian Schieferdecker. Buxtehude died in 1707 and was buried at St. Mary’s Church.

Buxtehude is variously referred to as a Swedish, Danish, or German composer. Any and all of these labels bear some truth.

The town of Buxtehude (now in Germany) was Swedish at the time of Dietrich’s birth. There is no direct link between the known members of the Buxtehude family and the town Buxtehude and nothing indicates that any of them ever have been there. It is fair to surmise, though, that the family originated in Buxtehude some generations earlier. Starting in the 14th century, it became common practice to append to new arrivals in a community the name of the place they came from. Thus an ancestor of Dietrich’s would have become the guy from Buxtehude upon starting a new life somewhere away from his home town.

So far, no one has been able to draw up a genealogy that links Dietrich Buxtehude to an ancestor in Buxtehude. Obtaining such a link is made very difficult as the obvious link of the family name of Buxtehude would only crop up after the ancestor took up residence in a new village or town.

Dietrich Buxtehude thought of himself as a Danish national. He received the citizenship of Lübeck upon taking over as organist but took years to change the writing of his Danish name Diderik to the German form Dietrich.

As Buxtehude only published a few works, most of his compositions were lost to the public eye. The rediscovery started in the 20th century with the study of other composers of his time. Most of his work currently known has been collected from copies other organists or composers had done and which had been filed with their papers. A large stash surfaced in Stockholm where a contemporary had amassed over 100 copies of compositions done by him.

It was after these finds were made that the importance of Buxtehude’s influence on the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann was finally appreciated. Born between the eminent Heinrich Schütz and Johann Sebastian Bach, he has been recognised an important link in bringing the musical tradition set by Schütz to the attention of Bach.