One of the three "ostinato" works for organ by the danish born Master Dieterich Buxtehude (the others being two "ciaccone": the first, in C Minor, BuxWV 159; the second, in E Minor, BuxWV 160), the "Passacaglia" is an authentic masterpiece of baroque Music, and was passed down to us thanks to the "Hans Andreas Bach Buch", a famous manuscript where it had been previously copied, and Philipp Spitta's 1875 first volume edition of Buxtehude's organ works. Its structure is clearly understood as being in four sections (D Minor, F Major, A Minor, D Minor), each of which with seven variations. As Walter Kraft 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. Comentary to the "Complete Organ Music", Buxtehude, Walter Kraft, 6 Cds, December 1957 - Marienkirche, Lübeck). J.J.Rousseau in his famous "Dictionnaire de Musique", Tome I, p. 415, éd. Art et Culture, Paris, 1977), wrote: "Passacaille, s. f.. Espèce de chaconne dont le chant est plus tendre et le mouvement plus lent que dans les chaconnes ordinaires (...)" The issue is far from being solved, needless to say that Brahms called "chaconne" Buxtehude's "Passacaglia" (which he deeply admired)... (Letter to Ph. Spitta). We can read a few "astronomical" interpretaions of this great musical creation, since Buxtehude sometimes seemed to think of the Cosmos when producing his free organ music. Temperament: Werckmeister III. The musician playing the gamba is part of Johannes' Voorhout painting (Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, Hamburg, Deutschland). It is now definitely acknowledged that Dieterich Buxtehude is the Gambist (for more details, see the other version of the Passacaglia, in this same channel).