Nicolaus Bruhns

Nicolaus (or Nikolaus) Bruhns (1665-1697) was a German organist and composer working in Husum.

Life

Nicolaus Bruhns was born between December 3 and 24, 1665, in Schwabstedt, around 15 kilometers south-east from Husum, where his father (maybe a student of Franz Tunder) was working as organist. He likely began learning music from his father, and in 1681 he moved to Lübeck to study the viola da gamba, violin, organ and composition.

His teacher Dietrich Buxtehude advised him to go to Kopenhagen. Nothing is known about Bruhns's time there, which started in 1686...perhaps he was a student of Christian Geist.

On March 30, 1689, Nicolaus Bruhns became the organist at the state church in Husum.

In 1740, Johann Mattheson wrote a curious tale in which Bruhns played his violin while sitting at the organ, playing the pedals and the violin at the same time.

Bruhns passed away on March 29, 1697, at only 31 years old.

Works

The first page of the Prelude in E Minor by Nicolaus Bruhns

The organ works by Bruhns survive in the following sources:

• The Möller Manuscript, which contains the Preludium in E Minor, copied by Johann Christoph Bach (as well as a fragment of the Preludium in G Major).
• The Schmahl Organ Tablatures (and a 19th-century copy of it), containing the Prelude in E Minor.
• A collection of four manuscripts which are all descendants of a fifth, B-Bc 26659 written by Johann Friedrich Agricola. Each manuscript contains the Preludium in G Major and a version of Nun komm der Heiden Heiland with more ornamentation inserted by Agricola.
  • An ostensibly more original copy of Nun komm der Heiden Heiland is found in the Johann Gottfried Walther manuscript D-B Mus.ms. Bach P 802.
• DK-Kk mu 7503.0234, which includes a fragment of another preludium.

Surviving organ works by Nicolaus Bruhns

Source(s)	Title	Incipit
Möller Manuscript f.97v-100r	Praeludium in E Minor, Groß
Schmahl Organ Tablatures D-B Mus.ms. 30147 p.25-29	Praeludium in E Minor, Kleine
Möller Manuscript f.54v B-Bc 26659 f.25r-27v D-B Mus.ms. 2683 f.26v-29v D-B Am.B 462 p.56-63 D-B Am.B 430 p.56-63 D-B Mus.ms. 2681/1 f.28v-32r	Praeludium in G Major
DK-Kk mu 7503.0234 f.8v-9r	Adagio in D Major (Frag.)
D-B Mus.ms. Bach P 802 p.162-175 Ornamented: B-Bc 26659 f.28r-30r D-B Mus.ms. 2683 f.30r-35r D-B Am.B 462 p.64-75 D-B Am.B 430 p.64-75 D-B Mus.ms. 2681/1 f.32v-38v	Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland

In 2006, the Prelude in G Minor which had previously been attributed to Bruhns was found to have been similarities with Arnold Matthias Brunckhorst by Dietrich Kollmannsperger (see Arnold Matthias Brunckhorst#Prelude in G Minor). Following this, the number of fully-extant known präludia by Bruhns was reduced back to 3.

Editions

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Note: "Three praeludiua" does not include the Prelude in G Minor.

Listed in Chronological order:

• Alexandre Guilmant, editor. Choral: Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland. Ecole Classique de L'orgue. Paris: Durand, 1900.

(Ornamented)

• Max Seiffert, editor. Organum IV vol. 8. Leipzig, Kistner & Siegel, undated

Contains three Praeludia only.

• Fritz Stein, editor. Nicolaus Bruhns: Gesammelte Werke. Erbe deutscher Musik. Zweite Reihe, Landschaftsdenkmale. Schleswig-Holstein und Hansestädte; vol. 1-2. Braunschweig: H. Litolff, 1939.

Contains three Praeludia and Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland (ornamented), as well as all surviving cantatas by him.

• Klaus Beckmann, editor. Nikolaus Bruhns: Sämtliche Orgelwerke. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1972.

• Michael Radulescu, editor. Nicolaus Bruhns: Orgelwerke. Wien: Doblinger, 1993.

• Harald Vogel, editor. Bruhns: Sämtliche Orgelwerke. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 2008.

• Klaus Beckmann, editor. N. Bruhns/A. M. Brunckhorst: Sämtliche Orgelwerke. Meister der Norddeutschen Orgelschule 13. Mainz: Schott.

References

Beckmann, Klaus, Die Norddeutsche Schule. Teil II: Blütezeit und Verfall. Mainz: Schott, 2009. 531-545.