Passacaglia in D minor, buxWV 161

Buxtehude's passacaglia only survives in a single source: the so-called Andreas Bach Buch, compiled by Johann Sebastian's eldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach (1671–1721). The same collection contains Buxtehude's other ostinato organ works: two chaconnes (BuxWV 159–160) and Praeludium in C (BuxWV 137), which incorporates a short chaconne. No information on the date of composition survives. Buxtehude scholar Michael Belotti suggested that all three ostinato works were composed after 1690. Kerala Snyder, on the basis of the passacaglia's complex form (see below), also argues that it is a late work.