The Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, is a piece
of organ music written, according to its oldest extant
sources, by Johann Sebastian Bach. Its time of origin,
narrowed down depending on author, lies between c.1704
and the 1750s. The piece opens with a toccata section,
followed by a fugue that ends in a coda. To a large
extent the piece complies to the characteristics deemed
typical for the north German organ school of the
baroque era, but divergent stylistic influences, such
as south German...(+)
The Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, is a piece
of organ music written, according to its oldest extant
sources, by Johann Sebastian Bach. Its time of origin,
narrowed down depending on author, lies between c.1704
and the 1750s. The piece opens with a toccata section,
followed by a fugue that ends in a coda. To a large
extent the piece complies to the characteristics deemed
typical for the north German organ school of the
baroque era, but divergent stylistic influences, such
as south German characteristics, have been described in
scholarly literature on the piece.
For a century after its creation the only certainty
about this Toccata and Fugue is that it survived in a
manuscript written by Johannes Ringk. The first
publication of the piece, in the Bach Revival era, was
in 1833, through the efforts of Felix Mendelssohn, who
also performed the piece in an acclaimed concert in
1840. The piece knew a fairly successful piano version
by Carl Tausig in the second half of the 19th century,
but it was not until the 20th century that its
popularity rose above that of other organ compositions
by Bach. That popularity further expanded until the
Toccata and Fugue in D minor came to be considered as
the most famous work in the organ repertoire.
A wide, and often conflicting, variety of analyses has
been published about the piece: for instance in
literature on organ music it is often described as some
sort of program music depicting a storm, while in the
context of Disney's Fantasia it was promoted as
absolute music, nothing like program music depicting a
storm. In the last quarter of the 20th century scholars
like Peter Williams and Rolf-Dietrich Claus published
their studies on the piece, and argued against its
authenticity. Bach scholars like Christoph Wolff
defended the attribution to Bach. Other commentators
ignored the authenticity doubts or considered the
attribution issue undecided. No edition of the
Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis listed the Toccata and Fugue
among the doubtful works, nor does its entry on the
website of the Bach Archiv Leipzig even mention
alternative views on the attribution issue.Johann
Sebastian Bach's most famous organ piece is notable for
its rhythmic drive as well for as its arresting opening
motif.
Considered the epitome of scary organ music by the many
who associate it with melodramatic silent-film scenes,
it has been transcribed in various ways. Through much
of the twentieth century it was often heard in an
orchestral arrangement by Leopold Stokowski. The
romanticized, roaring registration often used in organ
performances is still effective, although
interpretations aiming for historical accuracy tend to
give the work a lighter touch. It is difficult to
establish a chronology of Bach's organ works, for most
of their autograph manuscripts (except for those from
the end of his career) have been lost. Works such as
this one have come down to us only in copies made by
his students. In the absence of clues provided by the
composer's handwriting, the paper he wrote on,
inscriptions that appear on the manuscript, and so
forth, scholars have tried to guess the date of this
work based on stylistic considerations. Because of its
most salient structural aspect -- the interpenetration
of the toccata material and the contrapuntal fugue --
the work has been assigned to the beginning of Bach's
career, before his 1708 move to Weimar. It is perhaps
the very earliest among Bach's well-known masterpieces.
The alternation of quasi-improvisatory and contrapuntal
sections was characteristic of the works of the north
German organist Dietrich Buxtehude, whom Bach walked
some two hundred miles to hear in 1704, taking a leave
of absence from his post as organist at the Neukirche
in Arnstadt. By fully realizing the dramatic potential
inherent in this technique, Bach created a timeless
work.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toccata_and_Fugue_in_D_m
inor,_BWV_565).
Although originally composed for Organ, I created this
modern interpretation of the Toccata & Fugue in D Minor
(BWV 565) for String Quintet (2 Violins, Viola, Cello &
Bass).
SHEET MUSIC