Praeludium in E minor, BuxWV 142

Buxtehude's Praeludium BuxWV 142 is one of the most celebrated examples of the North German organ praeludium, a form that alternates improvisatory toccata sections with contrapuntal fugues. Composed in Lübeck, where Buxtehude served as organist at the Marienkirche for nearly four decades, this work exemplifies the stylus phantasticus: a fantasy-like idiom of extravagant flourishes, rhetorical pauses, rapid register changes, and sudden dynamic contrasts. The two fugal sections are sharply characterized — the first lyrical and flowing, the second driving and energetic — separated by free toccata episodes of theatrical abandon. The young Bach famously walked two hundred miles from Arnstadt to Lübeck in 1705 specifically to hear Buxtehude play, and the influence of this North German idiom is unmistakable in Bach's early organ works.