J. S. Bach’s Toccata Adagio and Fugue in C Major, one of the more popular organ pieces, was composed in 1709 in Weimar. It was probably inspired by the virtuosic stylus fantasticus toccatas by Dieterich Buxtehude, whom Bach visited in Lübeck just a few years earlier. The opening birdsong-like motive uses three notes of the C Major triad to immediately set up the tonality of the piece, giving the organist’s hans and feet a virtuosic “warm-up”. The enthusiastic Toccata is reminiscent of the Italian orchestral concerti, followed by the Adagio that shows Italian influences in the ornate melody of the right hand and in the evocative ending akin to the Toccatas per elevatione by Frescobaldi. The flashy, dance-like fugue is composed using the C Major triad similarly to the beginning.
Trio sonatas, a popular form in the Baroque era, were usually played by four musicians: two treble instruments, harpsichord and a bass instrument. Bach’s Trio sonatas were probably composed for a two-manual pedal clavichord, a quiet instrument that was mostly used by organists for practicing. The set of six sonatas (BWV 525-531) dates from 1730, when Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was sixteen years old and studying keyboard. Athough the pieces could be considered purely educational, Bach incorporates a great variety of styles and contrasting musical forms, making them far from elementary works. Each sonata consists of three movements with three equal voices in the right hand, left hand and pedal. Sonata No. 5 in D Minor opens with a melodic line in the right hand that is followed by a violinistic middle section. The second movement is an idyllic Adagio with interweaving ornamented voices. The third movement is a dance-like Vivace in triple meter with stunningly virtuosic patterns in both hands and pedal.
Originally composed for harpsichord, the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue BWV 903 has been transcribed for various instruments in the early twentieth century. Busoni made an arrangement for the piano, and Kodaly transcribed it for the solo viola. Reger was particularly interested in the revival of Bach’s music, and this is evident both in his own compositions and his transcriptions. Reger’s friendship with Karl Straube, the organist at Bach’s own Thomaskirche, resulted in many virtuosic organ pieces including arrangements of Bach’s keyboard works.
Reger’s transcriptions for organ reflect a desire to “update” Bach’s keyboard works for late romantic organs. These instruments were designed to produce gradual changes of volume, and orchestral effects. In choosing works to transcribe, Reger leans toward Bach’s more dramatic works, which enable musical effects similar to those in most of Reger’s own compositions.
Various instructions in the score give us insight into the style of performance practice of the early 20th century. Dynamic markings reflect frequent changes of mood, contrasts in volume, added pianistic parallel octaves. Sometimes Reger even added an extra voice in the pedal, similarly to his practice in the infamous transcriptions of Two-part Inventions. Therefore, listening to the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in Reger’s transcription brings us back to the expressive, affectionate playing style of the early twentieth-century.
Mendelssohn’s great admiration for the works of J. S. Bach is reflected by his organ works such as the six sonatas Op. 65 and the Preludes and Fugues Op. 37. In these works Mendelssohn merges his own harmonic language with counterpoint and fugual elements of earlier periods. The Sonata No. 6 uses the chorale melody Vater Unser im Himmelreich (Our Father in Heaven) as a basis for four variations and a four-part fugue. The expressive and quiet closing section could be a prayer or a reflection on the same text.
Schumann wrote three sets of short pieces, Op. 56, 58, and 60, for the Pedal-piano, an instrument that stems from the pedal clavichord and the pedal harpsichord. Schumann was so fond of his upright pedal piano, built by Louis Schone in Dresden, that he convinced Mendelssohn to devote an entire class to this instrument at the Leipzig Conservatory. Schumann uses counterpoint in a surprisingly original manner in these pieces. In Op. 60 Schumann pays his homage to Bach with the letters of B-A-C-H (B, A, C, Bb in German) in six fugues. The Op. 58 pieces are sewn from a strict canonic material while keeping a transparent vocal character and uncompromised harmonic language. In No. 4 the soprano and alto lines are in canon with a simple chord accompaniment. In No. 5 the left and right hand are in canon and in No. 6 the beautiful soprano line is repeated by the tenor line.
I finished my in Trumpet Toccata in 2008. The first sketches of the trumpet-like opening were penned while I was working on my Organ Concerto the year before. I must have been sick of the thick and complicated tonal structure of the concerto, so the toccata came out as a light-hearted rhythmical piece, although with challenging technical difficulties. My harmonic language here is rather approachable, composed of modal scales and mixed meters. |
