Dietrich Buxtehude (1637- 1707)

In 1705, the 20-year-old Bach set off on foot from Arnstadt to Lübeck, a journey of just over 250 miles, to hear the great Danish organist Buxtehude perform. Like most composers at that time, Buxtehude did not just play the organ – witness the only surviving likeness of him painted in his lifetime, playing a viola da gamba. However it was as the organist of the Marienkirche, Lübeck, a post he was appointed to in 1668, that he became famous. From 1673, he gave celebrated Abendmusiken (evening concerts) annually on the five Sundays before Christmas.