Dietrich Buxtehude

Dieterich Buxtehude was born around May 1637, likely in Helsingborg (then part of Denmark) or Helsingør, where his father served as organist at St. Olaf's Church. Buxtehude served as organist in Helsingør before winning the prestigious post of organist at St. Mary's Church (Marienkirche) in Lübeck in 1668.

Buxtehude was the supreme master of the stylus phantasticus, renowned across Northern Europe for his virtuosic pedal technique, dramatic organ toccatas, chaconnes, and vocal cantata cycles such as Membra Jesu Nostri. His famous Abendmusiken evening concerts attracted musicians from afar; in 1705, a twenty-year-old Johann Sebastian Bach famously walked over 250 miles from Arnstadt to Lübeck to study his art.