The Seven Sonatas, Op. 1, of Dietrich Buxtehude, published around 1694, date from the later years of the composer's career as organist at St. Mary's Church in Lübeck. Written for violin, viola da gamba, and keyboard continuo, they juggle not two but three different worlds: these sonatas, most of them in four multi-sectional movements, deftly join elements of the virtuoso violin tradition of the seventeenth century, the dense contrapuntal thinking of the school that culminated in J.S. Bach, and the new instrumental sonata ...
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The Seven Sonatas, Op. 1, of Dietrich Buxtehude, published around 1694, date from the later years of the composer's career as organist at St. Mary's Church in Lübeck. Written for violin, viola da gamba, and keyboard continuo, they juggle not two but three different worlds: these sonatas, most of them in four multi-sectional movements, deftly join elements of the virtuoso violin tradition of the seventeenth century, the dense contrapuntal thinking of the school that culminated in J.S. Bach, and the new instrumental sonata and concerto structures emanating from Italy. The musical scenery changes quickly as these small sections of music go by; extreme chromatic experiments (the Largo opening of the last movement of the Sonata No. 3) stand next to fugues, canons, and other manifestations of learned polyphonic art, and the relationship between the violin and viola da gamba changes constantly, with the gamba serving variously as accompanimental harmonic reinforcement, fugal voice, and contrasting element in...
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