Dietrich Buxtehude Stamp

This article is about the West Germany Dietrich Buxtehude stamp of 1987. Buxtehude was an important organist of the seventeenth century, establishing a northern European Baroque keyboard style in the generation before Johann Sebastian Bach.

Composers are commonly depicted on stamps, the first appearing on Austrian stamps in 1922. Germany followed a few years later, depicting both Beethoven and Bach on stamps featuring great Germans in 1926. Celebrating composers on stamps makes sense as they are often cultural icons within a country, instilling pride in a local population and to the greater world. Germany, especially, celebrates many of its musical geniuses on stamps. Of course, on this blog you can read about other composers from Spain, Czechoslovakia, Russia, the United States, and elsewhere.

Dietrich Buxtehude

Dietrich Buxtehude was born in 1637 in Helsingborg, Scania, in what was then the country of Denmark-Norway. His father was also an organist, at the church of St. Olaf’s in Helsingør, Denmark. It is probable that his father was his first teacher, and Dietrich would later serve as organist in nearby Helsingborg, and then from 1660 until 1668, in Helsingør.

In 1668, Buxtehude succeeded Franz Tunder as the organist of the Marienkirche, in Lübeck. In that year, Buxtehude also married Tunder’s daughter, Anna Margarethe. Due to Lübeck being a free city, Buxtehude enjoyed more autonomy than musicians who worked for a nobleman or court. In addition to his church duties, Buxtehude also organized an evening concert series that attracted musicians from afar. Incredibly, Buxtehude even was the treasurer for the church.

Buxtehude’s fame was such that aspiring composers would come to Lübeck to meet him, hear him play, and receive instruction. George Frederick Handel and Johann Mattheson both visited Buxtehude in 1703. Supposedly, Buxtehude was ready to retire and offered his job to either of them, in exchange for them marrying one of his daughters. Both men refused. Then, famously, in 1705, Bach walked more than 250 miles to spend three months learning as much as possible from Buxtehude. Buxtehude died at the age of 70 in 1707.

His Music

Incredibly, more than one hundred vocal compositions survive by Buxtehude, but they have been largely forgotten. Other music has been lost, including the compositions of his oratorios, which were important to Bach’s early style.

Far more important to music history, are the surviving keyboard compositions that also brought Buxtehude the greatest fame. Included in this are chorale preludes, fantasias, and variations, all based on hymn tunes. In addition, there are two chaconnes and a passacaglia. However, most famous are his nineteen organ preludes. Typically, these pieces begin with the statement of a motif in an introduction that then leads into improvisatory passages based on this motif between the hands and pedals. After this improvisatory section, Buxtehude usually writes a fugue, or if not a full fugue then other contrapuntal material. In these pieces, Buxtehude makes great use of the pedalboard. Undoubtedly, these keyboard preludes were a big influence on the young Bach as well as on other Baroque composers such as Georg Philipp Telemann.

The Stamp

The stamp was issued on May 5th, 1987, celebrating the 350th anniversary of the birth of Buxtehude. It is a modern design featuring four ranks of floating pipes. To the left, in red, is Buxtehude’s signature. On the right are his life dates: 1637-1707. The design for the stamp is by the eminent German graphic designer, artist, and professor Günter Jacki.

Finally, the Marienkirche in Lübeck was famously home to two historic organs for several hundred years. Unfortunately, during World War II the organs were destroyed. However, there is a single recording of the famous small organ, known as the Totentanz organ. Buxtehude, Bach, and probably Handel, all played this instrument. Here you can hear the instrument and starting at 5:16 one of Buxtehude’s preludes.