Dieterich Buxtehude - "Passacaglia" in D minor BuxWV 161

One of the three "ostinato" works for organ by the danish Master Dieterich Buxtehude (the others being two Chaconnes: the first, in C Minor, BuxWV 159; the second, in E Minor, BuxWV 160), the Passacaglia, an authentic masterpiece of baroque Music, was passed down to us thanks to the "Hans Andreas Bach Buch", a famous manuscript where it had been copied, and Philipp Spitta's 1875 first volume edition of Dieterich's organ works. Its structure can be understood as being in four sections (D Minor, F Major, A Minor, D Minor) each of which with seven variations. As Walter Kraft once put it, "there is little difference between the chaconne and the passacaglia; the first, however, is a dance, whereas the second is a march; the passacaglia is generally slower and less freely written, and the accent does not fall on the second beat of the bar (as in the chaconne)" (Ap. Commentary to the "Complete Organ Music", Buxtehude, Walter Kraft, 6 Cds, December 1957 - Marienkirche, Lübeck)