Dietrich Buxtehude was one of the chief figures in North German music of his time. Although Buxtehude never held a position that required him to compose vocal music, he left over 120 vocal works featuring an extremely wide range of texts, scorings, genres and compositional styles. This first volume of the Naxos re-issue edition of the complete vocal music recorded by Dacapo includes such masterpieces as the funeral music Fried– und freudenreiche Hinfahrt, music of the most profound grief expressed using the simplest of means, and the sacred concerto Singet dem Herrn, Buxtehude’s only vocal work scored with solo violin, in which the composer seems to be pointing to violin playing as one of the wonders of God.