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.
Read more about this topic: Nicolaus Bruhns
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“His character as one of the fathers of the English language would alone make his works important, even those which have little poetical merit. He was as simple as Wordsworth in preferring his homely but vigorous Saxon tongue, when it was neglected by the court, and had not yet attained to the dignity of a literature, and rendered a similar service to his country to that which Dante rendered to Italy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Again we mistook a little rocky islet seen through the “drisk,” with some taller bare trunks or stumps on it, for the steamer with its smoke-pipes, but as it had not changed its position after half an hour, we were undeceived. So much do the works of man resemble the works of nature. A moose might mistake a steamer for a floating isle, and not be scared till he heard its puffing or its whistle.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“‘Tis too plain that with the material power the moral progress has not kept pace. It appears that we have not made a judicious investment. Works and days were offered us, and we took works.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)