J.S. Bach - BWV 565 - Toccata d-moll / D minor

[snare310]

this in Eb? haha Not trying to say anything rude, just an observation. Does anyone know why this is played in Eb?

[tyu3456]

@snare310 If you listen to other works by bach and other baroque composers like handel, you'll find that a lot of recordings bring the key down a half-step then what was actually written. The reasoning is that is apparently how they tuned their instruments back then.

[snare310]

@tyu3456 Very true, the differences of hard tempered tuning and equal tempered tuning can be easily heard in most older written music. However, this would affect the tuning down somewhere around half a step, but this recording is almost exactly up a step. This would make sense if it was toccata and fugue in E minor(and down a half step from the hard tempered tuning), but it is in D, implying it would be closer to c sharp minor.

[snare310]

@snare310 oops I mean to write this piece is up a half step, not just a step

[tyu3456]

@snare310 then the organ must be just tuned that way. i can't imagine a performer learning a piece in a different key then what was written on purpose

[snare310]

@tyu3456 I agree!

[VitaliyGR]

I tend to agree with the researchers who suppose that this is an arrangement of a lost solo violin composition - as in case with BWV 539. Indeed, there are many traces in the music itself that support the idea of the violin as the original instrument. And no matter what, the spirit is truly Bachian, no doubt of that :)

[TooEarlyAndTooLate]

oh yeah of course it's not bach

maybe it's dracula himself after all

man could you quit whining and just listen to this

[Jonwalker92]

@TooEarlyAndTooLate LMAO i lol'd

[NPorganist]

Read somewhere that Bach was only 18 when he composed this piece. Heard a superb recording of this work as a boy many years ago by Anton Heiller at the Marcussen organ of The Marya Kyrka, Helsingborg, Sweden. What a sound!! It was this recording that made me decide to study the organ. Heiller was a perfectionist.

[presleyrocks1231]

this is totally not bach

[12clar3412clar34]

it is discussed that this work may not be by bach

[toxiconegro]

@12clar3412clar34

To find proper evidence in these cases is always quite difficult. Yes, it ain't typical "Bachish" style in this one, but I think it's a vanguard work maybe composed by him in his early years or, according to your theory, by someone else.

To be honest, I don't like it myself but it's one of the most popular works by Bach or the most popular one of all organ works, so that's why I did it as well.

[RemovdSande11]

@toxiconegro

I think there might be a chance that this was original a work for the violin which is later transcribed to the organ.

[AerialStoner]

this is some complicated sheet music...bach is awesome!