Nicolaus Bruhns - Works

Works

Bruhns' surviving oeuvre is unfortunately small: only 12 vocal and 5 organ pieces are extant. The vocal works include four sacred concertos that established a new level of virtuosity in the genre, and three sacred madrigal cantatas that represent a direct link with the next century and the work of Johann Sebastian Bach. Although the instrumental writing in most of these works suggests that Bruhns could only rely on musicians of average skill, there are movements, such as the opening sonatina of the solo cantata Mein Herz ist bereit, that feature highly developed, virtuosic textures. Bruhns almost certainly wrote chamber music, which may have been of the same high quality, but none of these works survive.

The organ works comprise four praeludia and a chorale fantasia, Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland. The most significant of these pieces is the larger of the two E minor praeludia, which is usually cited as one of the greatest works of the North German organ tradition. Although Johann Sebastian Bach's son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach claimed that his father admired and studied Bruhns' work, no direct influence has been traced by scholars.