Vincent Lübeck

Vincent Lübeck (c. September 1654 – 9 February 1740) was a German composer and organist. He was born in Padingbüttel and worked as organist and composer at Stade’s St. Cosmae et Damiani (1675–1702) and Hamburg’s famous St. Nikolai (1702–1740), where he played one of the largest contemporary organs. He enjoyed a remarkably high reputation in his lifetime, and had numerous pupils, among whom were two of his sons. Despite Lübeck’s longevity and fame, very few compositions by him survive: a handful of organ praeludia and chorales in the North German style, a few cantatas and several pieces for harpsichord, some of which were published during the composer’s lifetime. Of his works, the organ pieces are the most important: influenced by Dieterich Buxtehude and Johann Adam Reincken, Lübeck composed technically and artistically sophisticated works, with frequent virtuosic passages for pedal, five-voice polyphony, and other devices rarely used by most of the composers of the period. Life Lübeck was born in Padingbüttel, a small town some 70 km north of Bremen. His father, also named Vincent, worked as organist first at Glückstadt and then, from 1647, at the Marienkirche in Flensburg, where h