[66] With a kind of protective touch, however, on the part of Mattheson. During the first months Handel would never have dreamt of offending him. The style of his letters to Mattheson in March, 1704, was extremely respectful. In fact Mattheson was then in advance of him, and his superior in social position. [67] See in the _Ehrenpforte_ the story of this journey, and the frolics which happened on the way to the two joyful companions. Buxtehude was a Dane, born at Elsinore in 1637. He settled at Lubeck, where he remained as the organist of St. Mary's Church, from the age of thirty years until his death in 1707. [68] It was the custom that the organ of a church should be given with the daughter, or the widow of the organist. Buxtehude himself, in succeeding Tunder, had married his daughter. [69] J. S. Bach went to Lubeck in October, 1705, and instead of staying a month, as arranged, he spent four months there; an irregularity which cost him his position at Celle. [70] The organ works of Buxtehude have been republished by Spitta and Max Seiffert, in 2 volumes by Breitkopf (see the short, but pithy, study of Pirro in his little book on _L'Orgue de J. S. Bach_, Paris, 1895, and Max Seiffert: _Buxtehude, Handel, Bach_, in the Peter's Annual, 1902). A selection (too restricted) of the cantatas has been published in a volume of the _Denkmäler deutscher Tonkunst_. Pirro is preparing a longer work on Buxtehude. [71] Particularly during 1693. [72] The part played by these free cities, Hamburg, Lubeck, the abodes of intelligent and adventurous merchants, in the history of German music, should be specially noticed. The part is analogous to that played by Venice and Florence in Italian painting and music. [73] There are about 150 manuscripts in the libraries of Lubeck, Upsala, Berlin, Wolfenbüttel, and Brussels. [74] His organ music bears witness to his mastery in this style. [75] See the penetrating intimacy, the suave melody, of the cantata _Alles was ihr tut mit Worten oder Werken_, and the tragic grandeur with such simple means of the magnificent cantata _Gott hilf mir_. [76] We find on page 167 of the _Denkmäler_ volume, a _Hallelujah_ by Buxtehude for 2 clarini (trumpets), 2 violins, 2 violas, violoncello, organ, and 5 vocal parts, which is pure Handel, and very beautiful. [77] Mattheson adds: "I know with certainty that if he reads these pages, he will laugh up his sleeve, but outwardly he laughs little." [78] Amongst others, the subject from an air in minuet form, which he repeated exactly in the minuet of his overture to _Samson_. [79] In the same week, Keiser and the poet Hunold gave another Passion, _The Bleeding and Dying Jesus_, which made a scandal: for he had treated the subject in the manner of an opera, suppressing the chorales, the chief songs, and the person of the evangelist and his story. Handel and Postel more prudently only suppressed the songs, but reserved the text of the evangelist.