Dietrich Becker was a contemporary of Buxtehude, a native of Hamburg. Although he was trained as an organist, the violin was his instrument of predilection and has pride of place in his compositions. The Sonata in D major, belonging to the Stylus Phantasticus, is his only one for the combination of violin and viol. It consists of a sonata proper followed by a suite of dances.
Athanasius Kircher describes the stylus phantasticus in his book, Musurgia Universalis in 1650: "The fantastic style is especially suited to instruments. It is the most free and unrestrained method of composing, it is bound to nothing, neither to any words nor to a melodic subject, it was instituted to display genius and to teach the hidden design of harmony and the ingenious composition of harmonic phrases and fugues."
