Though not especially well-known today, Dietrich Buxtehude was a towering presence in the Baroque era. Handel idolized him, and a young J.S. Bach traveled 200 miles on foot for the privilege of hearing Buxtehude perform his own organ works. (Allegedly, Bach wanted to succeed the master as the church organist at Lübeck; unfortunately, in order to do so he would have had to marry one of Buxtehude's daughters - a stipulation he found unacceptable.) Many of Buxtehude's works were lost for centuries and only recently rediscovered; countless others remain missing.
