Bach's Strangest Opus
With a musical treat included
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (BWV 565) is so famous and so often performed that to many it might seem to be the standard organ work by Johann Sebastian Bach. But the truth is, it is not standard at all among his compositions. It is unique in many ways, so much so that it is uncharacteristic of him. He was probably twenty years-old at the time, and never again would he write anything like it. Why he wrote something so unusual must have everything to do with the fact that he was still very much under the influence of Dietrich Buxtehude. He may even have written it while still visiting Buxtehude, the most famous composer and organist of the day. The masterpiece reflects the older composer’s influence when musical taste and style was in its final stages of evolution from the Renaissance era to the Baroque era. Buxtehude was, as we would say today, one of the pioneers of that transformation, and his compositions show that the stylistic norms of the Baroque era had not yet become fully developed and entirely customary. His music sounds almost like the Baroque music we associate with Bach and Handel, but not quite; indeed, it sounds still a bit on the wild side by the standards of completely formed Baroque-era expectations.
In October of 1705 Bach walked over four hundred kilometers, just short of two hundred and fifty miles, from Arnstadt to Lubeck, because the sixty-eight-year-old Buxtehude was the only one who was accomplished enough to be a valuable mentor to Bach. Buxtehude was so impressed with the young musician that he wanted him to succeed him in his post at Lubeck. The post came, however, with one condition that Bach could not accept; that he marry Buxtehude’s daughter who was ten years Bach’s senior. So, in February 1706 Bach returned to Arnstadt and his post there as church organist, having left his assistant in charge for almost four months past the time that young Bach had been granted leave by the town authorities.
Toccata and Fugue in D minor is written as one work rather than as two separate movements, i.e., it is not written as a prelude and a fugue, each of which could stand alone. In this piece the fugue begins after a brief rest within the same measure that concludes the toccata; the second quarter of the third beat, to be exact. The fugue subject comes as a variation from part of the toccata, and even in the toccata it is derived from the motif in the opening notes. Instead of the fugue subject being answered by the second (and fourth) voice entries in the interval of the fifth it is answered in the interval of the fourth. The fugue contains episodes that are single-voice arpeggios, episodes brief enough not to detract from the fugal structure. Instead of the fugue working its way to one glorious anticipated close with a formal cadence, that is resolving to the tonic chord from a five-7 chord, it ends in an informal cadence from the four chord to the tonic, and both of these last chords are minor, G minor to D minor. Even for fugues written in minor keys the final resolution in Bach’s music is usually, though not always, in a major chord. The toccata ends in the anticipated five-7 to one major formal cadence (A7 to D Major).
But the fugue ends three times. First, we have two deceptive cadences, that is, both rhythmically and in the preceding harmonic progression the flow of the music is causing the listener to expect a conventional ending. But the “final” chord is not what the listener expects to hear. This D minor fugue resolves from the chords F major to B flat (Bb) major. We are left both awed and unsatisfied. So, it begins again with seeming sporadic riffs of notes that lead us crashing into the dissonance of two diminished seventh chords that lead to yet another deceptive cadence, a C suspended chord that resolves, but not quite, to C major. I say “not quite” because the bass note of the chord is the third, E, rather than the root of the chord. For the second time we are awed and still unsatisfied before another series of riffs take us to a very dramatic chord progression resolving in, as I said, that minor informal cadence, which, unconventional as it is, still satisfies us as a proper conclusion to this musical story we have been following.
That triple ending with two deceptive cadences is something Bach would never write again; but it was quite often how Buxtehude ended his most impressive fugues.
IN THE VIDEO BELOW you will be able to watch and listen to my performance of a piano transcription of this marvelous Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565) as I play the piece on my Yamaha DGX-660. I use organ and modern orchestra sounds that Bach never had available to him. But I refuse to apologize to purists inasmuch as Bach himself transcribed works, sometimes his own and sometimes those of others (most notably of Vivaldi from orchestra to organ solo). I have good organ sounds on my keyboard, but not the ability to switch from two or three various manuals with several registrations available. So, it is for the sake of artistic integrity that I settled on this solution, believing it is consistent with Bach’s approach to music as a whole. Not having a third hand (i.e., no pedals for my feet to constitute the equivalent of a third hand) I dubbed in the notes missing from the transcription, which are very few. They include one trill between the F and G above middle C when the fugue modulates briefly to C minor, and exactly four bass notes shortly thereafter. So even with the limitation of only two hands you will hear the complete piece intact with every note. Other than that very little bit of dubbing it was recorded on one track, which is what you see me doing in the video. Enjoy.