Jubilate Domino - D. Buxtehude BuxWV64 - Alex Potter - F. Hess - M. Fuerst - Luebeck St. Jakobi

Alex Potter, countertenor
Frauke Hess, viola da gamba
Michael Fuerst, organ

The Stellwagen-Organ in the Church of St. James (St. Jakobi) in Lübeck is the nearest thing we have to the sound-world and performance situation Dieterich Buxtehude would have known during his lifetime (1637-1707). With its Gothic core and seventeenth-century additions, this surviving organ has an analogous history to Buxtehude's own instruments in St Mary's (St. Marien) in Lübeck which have been lost to posterity. The video opens with the first 13 bars of Buxtehude’s Praeludium in C BuxWV 136, featuring the organ in a solo role.

We are very grateful to the congregation of St. James in Lübeck and to Prof. Arvid Gast in particular for granting us access to this unique setting to record Buxtehude’s “Jubilate Domino BuxWV 64.”


On the use of the Stellwagen-Organ as a continuo instrument

The high tuning (a whole step above a’= 440 Hz) of the Stellwagen-Organ practically begs for a transposition of “Jubilate Domino” down a whole tone, in accordance with the practices documented for other composers. This transposition from D-major to C-major also solves many issues that arise due to the organ’s Werckmeister tuning system. For example, the out-of-tune-sounding F#-major chords all become usable E-major chords. The piece also makes use of several bass notes that are not available on the manuals due to the short octave which does not include the lowest C#, Eb, F# or G#. These notes are unavoidable in the original key. When the piece is transposed, they occur far less frequently. Where they do occur, we have interpreted this as an indication to use the pedals, where these notes are available, adding additional depth to the resulting organ part. The basic registration of the organ makes use of the 8’ flutes on each of the three manuals and in the pedals, all built by Friederich Stellwagen in 1636/37. In addition, the 16’ Subbaß is used in the pedals. Short solo sections are played with additional stops on the colorful Rückpostiv.

For more information on the organ and the church please see the following sites (in German):

https://www.kirche-ll.de/gemeinden/in...

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgeln_...)

This video was made possible by NEUSTART KULTUR
Gefördert von der Beauftragen der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im Rahmen von NEUSTART KULTUR

Film Christoph Schönbeck