Passacaglia in D minor, BuxWV 161

Passacaglia in D minor (BuxWV 161) is an organ work by Dieterich Buxtehude. It is generally acknowledged as one of his most important works, and was possibly an influence on Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor (BWV 582), as well as Brahms' music.

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.

The work is in 3/2 time with a four-bar ostinato pattern:

There are four sections, exploring a total of three keys. The first section is in D minor (the tonic), the second in F major (the relative major), the third in A minor (the dominant), and the fourth returns to D minor. The sections are connected by short modulatory passages. Each section contains seven variations on the seven-note ostinato. Modulation was rarely seen in ostinato variations at the time; nevertheless, an Italian composer of the mid-17th century, Bernardo Storace, used the same scheme in his passacaglias (four sections in different keys, connected by short transitions); but it is unlikely that Buxtehude knew Storace's work.

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