Although only 17 bars long, it progresses through five tempo changes. Describe what you hear that makes you think this; support your answer. [113][114][115][116], After 1936, another approach to using BWV 565 in film was under consideration. [10] Statistical analysis conducted by Peter van Kranenburg, in the second half of the first decade of the 21st century, confirmed the Fugue was atypical for Bach,[136] but failed to find a composer more likely to have composed it than Bach. At the end of the 20th century, Hans Fagius wrote: ... the fact remains that the Toccata is strikingly unorganistic and modern to have been written by Bach around 1705, even if the form is that of North German toccata. The piece opens with a toccata section, followed by a fugue that ends in a coda.Scholars differ as to when it was composed. Spitta had already remarked on the similarity between a passage in BWV 565 and one in the harpsichord Prelude BWV 921, Robert Marshall compares the continuation patterns and sequences of the harpsichord Toccata BWV 911, and the Fugue theme of the harpsichord Toccata BWV 914, with the same of BWV 565. #. [57] In that, and subsequent releases of Walcha's recordings of BWV 565 on Deutsche Grammophon (DG), there is an obvious evolution of the work from "one among many" organ compositions by Bach to a definite signature piece by the composer. Despite Mendelssohn's opinion that it was "at the same time learned and something for the people",[23] followed by a fairly successful piano transcription in the second half of the 19th century,[24] it was not until the 20th century that it rose above the average notability of an organ piece by Bach. Written for the organ’s unique and overpowering timbre, segments of the piece are often used to garnish plots of treachery and horror. d. [33][34], In 1935 Hermann Hesse wrote a poem about the piece, "Zu einer Toccata von Bach" (On a toccata by Bach), which contributed to its fame. [4][5] As far as known, Ringk produced his first copy of a Bach score in 1730 when he was 12. ", which is usually seen as the key signature being D minor. [113] The piece has appeared in many more films, including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), in which it is played by Captain Nemo on the organ of the Nautilus, before the submarine's pitiless and apparently unmotivated attack on a ship. Toccata and fugue in D minor is one of the most famous and reknown works of Johann Sebastian Bach. A passage in the fugue of BWV 565 is an exact copy of a phrase in one of Johann Pachelbel's D minor fantasias, and the first half of the subject is based on this Pachelbel passage as well. [43] Novello published the work in 1886 as No. In 1964, the New Bach Edition included BWV 565 in Series IV, Volume 6,[48] with its critical commentary published in Volume 5 in 1979. Bach's Organ Toccata BWV 565" pp. 4 (2:37, Toccata only – Fugue of that, J. S. Bach – L'Œuvre Pour Orgue – Intégrale en 24 disques, Vol. Consequently, the name of the piece was again given in Italian as Toccata con Fuga, and the piece was again written down in D Dorian (i.e. Williams, Peter F. (July 1981). 330–337 in, Albrecht, Timothy E. (1980). He assumed the work was written in the first year of Bach's second Weimar period (1708–1717). 7 pp. [108][25] Other orchestrations of the piece were provided by Fabien Sevitzky,[109] René Leibowitz (1958),[110] Lucien Cailliet (1967)[111] and Stanisław Skrowaczewski (1968). All in all, he judges the music as superficial, not more than a stepping stone in Bach's development. [22], The first major public performance was by Mendelssohn, on 6 August 1840, in Leipzig. Bach. [22] Its presumed time of composition shifted around. By the time Disney's Fantasia was released in 1940, the animations accompanying BWV 565 had been made semi-abstract, although Fischinger's original idea that the performance of the music start with showing Stokowski directing his orchestra was preserved. 17–29 in, Emans, Reinmar (2009). There are nevertheless some doubts about the authorship of this piece. ( Log Out / Monophonic 2. [10], In 1833, BWV 565 was published for the first time, in the third of three bundles of "little known" organ compositions by Bach. Wolff calls it a pseudo-problem. The awe-inspiring dynamism of the organ and the stark contrasts between the individual sections as well as within the sections would have kept the worshipers on their toes, a power unlikely to fade anytime soon. "Bach's Free Organ Works and the 'stylus Phantasticus'" pp. [117][118][119][120][121], The 1950 film Sunset Boulevard used BWV 565 as a joking reference to the horror genre. In Ringk's manuscript the upper stave is written down using the soprano clef (as was common in the time when the manuscript originated), where printed editions use the treble clef. His description of the piece refers to long sections that are surfeit: "rocking passages which have no connection whatever with the chief idea" and organ recitatives alternating with "ponderous, roaring masses of chords". [22][25] Leopold Stokowski's orchestration, featured in the 1940 Walt Disney film Fantasia, appears to have been instrumental in assuring its status as an evergreen by the 1980s,[26] around which time scholars started to seriously doubt its attribution to Bach. [21], In the first century of its existence the entire reception history of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor consists of being saved from oblivion by maybe not more than a single manuscript copy. Indeed, the emotional content of the toccata is carried into the fugue section, only to be thickened by the polyphonic nature of the fugue. [21] It has been described as some sort of program music depicting a storm,[30] but also as abstract music, quite the opposite of program music depicting a storm. Wright, Craig. 4", as "BGA Volume XV p. 267", as "Novello VI, 1", or without "Dorian", to distinguish it from the Toccata and Fugue with the same key signature. [55] Schweitzer's first recording of the piece was issued in 1935. [94], In his 1999 Bach biography, Klaus Eidam devotes a few pages to the Toccata and Fugue. [104][105][25][106], In 1947, Eugene Ormandy recorded his orchestration of the piece with the Philadelphia Orchestra. [138], In 1961, Antony Davies remarked that the Toccata was void of counterpoint. 596–603, "Albert Schweitzer als Organist", pp. Jeremy Barham (Fall-Winter 2008). Some felt the composition was too modern to have been composed by a young Bach,[91][100] or too simplistic to have been composed by a middle-aged Bach. It involves the superposition of two or more melodies heard simultaneously, all having the same importance. In any case, for a classically trained musician such a glaring reference to one of the most hackneyed commonplaces of Western art music—certainly the most hackneyed within Bach's output (although its authorship has long been disputed)—clashes with the alleged intention of paying homage to the Eisenach maestro." This preview shows page 1 - 2 out of 2 pages. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor was played with an organ. 103–111 in, Gwinner, Volker (1968). [10] A new violin version was created by scholar Bruce Fox-Lefriche in 2004. From then on the work has been simply BWV 565, and the other, the so-called "Dorian", has been BWV 538. [141][142] Several essays in John Butt's Cambridge Companion on Bach discuss the attribution problems of BWV 565. It could have been as early as c. 1704.Alternatively, a date as late as the 1750s has been suggested. Williams questions the authenticity of the piece, based on its various unusual features, and elaborates the idea that the piece may have a violin version ancestor. In the last quarter of the 20th century, scholars such as Peter Williams and Rolf-Dietrich Claus published their studies on the piece and argued against its authenticity. Featured image, painting Bach in Heaven by Johnathan Day. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1980. Williams added more stylistic problems to the ones already mentioned by Bullivant, among others the parallel octaves throughout the opening of the toccata, the true subdominant answers in the fugue, and the primitive harmonies throughout the piece, with countersubjects in the fugue frequently moving through thirds and sixths only. ( Log Out / 71–89 in. The Toccata and Fugue in D minor is the best known and most popular piece by J.S. Boston: Cengage Learning, 2011. At the time it was however common practice to create fugues on other composers' themes. The section ends with a diminished seventh chord which resolved into the tonic, D minor, through a flourish.