[49] He was installed in this position April 11, 1668, and upon the third of the following August married Anna Margaretha, daughter of his deceased predecessor.
[50] Dietrich Buxtehude's Orgelcompositionen, herausgegeben von P. Spitta. (The first volume contains the preludes, fugues, etc.; the second the chorales.) Leipzig, 1876.
[51] It is curious to notice, even in these surroundings, an example of what was in the middle ages called the "proportio hemiolia," the immediate passage from triple to duple time, which we find as late as in the works of Bach and Händel. (See The Messiah, third chorus, thirty-fifth measure.)
In endeavoring to accentuate the rhythm, Buxtehude unconsciously breaks it. In reality, the pedal brings an accent upon the third beat; and we obtain, by taking as the first beats of measures the chords marked with a sign:
[52] See Merkel (Johann): "Betrachtungen über die deutsche Tonkunst im 18. Jahrhundert." Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde (School of Philosophy of Leipzig University, 1886).
[53] These concerts were inaugurated in 1673; undoubtedly for one of these, to which the name Abendmusik, evening music, was applied, the Chaconnes and the Passacaglia were written.
[54] Centone (It.): a composition made up of excerpts from other works.
[55] Peters Edition, edited by Griepenkerl and Roitzsch, vol. iv, No. 5.