(German, "Evening music") concerts that were held in the Marienkirche, Lübeck, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The earliest (beginning ca. 1640) presented a variety of vocal music and organ compositions. The most notable series were those presented each year on the five Sundays before Christmas during the time Dietrich Buxtehude was organist (1667–1707). In addition to the vocal and organ music, Buxtehude and his successors also composed oratorios for these concerts. They were discontinued around 1810 due to the Napoleonic wars. The term is now used to describe concerts in churches anywhere and usually refers to music played in the evening. [WAC; GJC