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The Winnipeg Baroque Festival is well underway, and local audiences have been basking in a rich lineup of early music masterpieces since March 30. But one of the most anticipated events of the festival is still to come: a performance of Membra Jesu Nostri by the choir at All Saints Anglican Church led by Dr. Dietrich Bartel, scheduled for April 11 at 7 p.m. at All Saints Anglican Church.
A concert rooted in tradition and reflection
This unique concert, conducted by Dr. Dietrich Bartel—Minister of Music at All Saints—is both a musical and spiritual reflection on the Crucifixion and the Easter story. It’s also a rare opportunity to experience a monumental but intimate piece by a composer whose legacy shaped the course of German music.
“We have been performing the piece on and off at All Saints as part of our Good Friday vigil,” Bartel explains. The vigil spans three hours, reflecting on the seven last words of Christ. “We’d interpolate these movements.” Inspired by those earlier performances, Bartel proposed a more formal concert presentation for this year’s festival. “That’s not unusual. Buxtehude himself loved to put on concerts of sacred music. He called them Abendmusik.”
Seven cantatas, one unified vision
Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri is a cycle of seven cantatas, each meditating on a different part of Christ’s crucified body: feet, knees, hands, side, breast, heart, and face. “It’s based on this poem by Arnulf of Louvain, a German late medieval, early Renaissance mystic,” says Bartel. Each cantata opens and closes with a short choral section based on a biblical verse. Between those choral bookends are three solo arias, all set to the same repeating bass line—a technique that gives the work its hypnotic cohesion and its solemn beauty.
A sound both delicate and powerful
Despite being seven cantatas, the full work lasts just under an hour. “Exactly,” Bartel says. “And the intimacy of the work is also reflected by the intimacy of the instrumental ensemble.”
That ensemble includes musicians from the local group Fidem in Fidibus, playing on period instruments tuned to Baroque pitch. “The A for what we normally consider concert pitch is about a semitone lower,” Bartel notes. “It just makes it a little more comfortable when things get high.” Another key difference? “The string instruments had gut strings, not the steel-wound ones. So it's a gentler, more intimate sound.”
Bach’s pilgrimage and Buxtehude’s legacy
Buxtehude’s use of these delicate textures is perhaps one reason Johann Sebastian Bach was so eager to meet him. As legend has it, Bach walked 400 kilometres to Lübeck to study with the aging composer. “Although I must laugh,” Bartel says. “I'm sure there were coaches going by or hay wagons that Bach probably jumped onto. But yes, it was a significant enough journey that he famously had a four-week holiday and stayed away for months.”
What drew Bach—and others like Handel—to Buxtehude wasn’t just his composition, but his prowess as an organist. “Particularly the organ is where Buxtehude was such a leader,” Bartel says. “The use of the pedal as an independent part of the organ was quite unique to northern Europe.” In fact, the famed organ in Hamburg at the time had a 64-foot open pipe—“just imagine, your big pipes are 64 feet high!”
Creative solutions for historical sound
In the Membra Jesu Nostri, Bartel highlights the special treatment of the sixth cantata, which focuses on Christ’s heart. “We cheated a little bit,” he admits. In the original, Buxtehude has the violins set down their bows and replaces them with five violas da gamba—fretted string instruments with a much softer sound. “We rearranged the parts and have them playing with mutes, to give a bit of that gentler Gamba sound.”
Choral cohesion and historical performance practice
While the solo arias are performed by five designated choir members—two sopranos, an alto, a tenor, and a bass—Bartel keeps the performance grounded in historical practice. “As in Bach and Buxtehude’s day, you would draw your soloists from your choir.” At All Saints, that’s a choir of about two dozen, providing a rich yet transparent choral sound.
Opening the evening: a reimagined Magnificat
The April 11 concert will also feature a lesser-known work by Buxtehude—his Magnificat primi toni, BuxWV 203, a piece for solo organ that Bartel has reimagined in a historically informed way. “It is a multi-sectional piece,” he says. “And I’ve always wondered: is there any way of connecting these sections with the Magnificat text?”
As it turns out, yes. In the 17th century, it was common to alternate Gregorian chant with organ or choral sections during Magnificat settings. “There are six discrete independent fugues in this piece,” Bartel says. “And what you need for this alternating performance are six sections.” Using chant to introduce each part, Bartel assigns each fugue as a response. “It just opened my eyes. Why isn't everybody doing it this way?”
While Buxtehude’s Magnificat may have rarely been performed with chant in recent decades, Bartel’s version gives it new dimension—and audiences a meditative prelude to the evening’s central work.
More than music: a message of depth and devotion
So what does Bartel hope listeners will take away from this concert?
“First of all, a love of Buxtehude,” he says without hesitation. “His music is just so very special. It’s from the heart. It’s not a showpiece. There’s an intimacy, a simplicity, yet austerity. Somehow it just says—this is not about display. This is about something deeper.”
That balance of depth and clarity, scholarship and soul, is precisely what makes this performance such a highlight of the Winnipeg Baroque Festival. In Membra Jesu Nostri, Buxtehude offers a musical meditation that is as tender as it is transcendent—and Bartel is determined to share that with a new generation of listeners.
As he puts it, “Yeah, this guy is really worth listening to.”
All Saints Anglican Church's presentation of Membra Jesu Nostri takes place this Friday, April 11th at 7pm at All Saints Anglican Church. For more details click here.