Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 09/27/2009, uploaded on 09/28/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Bach's set of seven Toccatas for keyboard date from 1707-11, just prior to and during the first years of his post in Weimar. During these formative years he experimented with a wide variety of compositional models. Overall, these early toccatas lack the profound expression and technical mastery of Bach's later music and are thus some of the least performed of his works. All too often, they come off as improvisatory and mere virtuosic pieces for keyboard. Nevertheless, they show the steady growth of one of music's greatest geniuses.

The Toccata in D major, BWV 912, mostly like written in 1707-08, falls roughly into the North German toccata model championed by Dietrich Buxtehude. As with most toccatas, this one is divided into several sections. It begins with a brilliant, though somewhat jarring, presto introduction of scales and chords, ultimately coming to a close in A major. A joyous allegro of rather simple construction and expression then commences. Throughout its course in never departs far from the central key of D major. The following adagio is recitative-like making, at first, significant use of a tremolo figure heard previously in the introduction. A fugal section in F-sharp minor follows. The longest section of the work, it effectively foreshadow Bach's mature style by making prominent use of chromaticism throughout its development. Another recitative-like section occurs after the conclusion of the F-sharp minor fugue. Arpeggios and scales lead into a chordal section, a mere two and one half measures in length, of remarkable beauty before dashing off into another fugue. This fugue, if it can truly be so titled, is not of the contrapuntal type that one often imagines when speaking of Bachian fugues. Instead it consists of a subject and countersubject that are suited more to providing harmonic accompaniment for each other rather than counterpoint. The incessant triplet figure is finally varied into a brilliant passage of sixteenth notes signaling the close of the work. A final cadence and ascending arpeggio of the tonic chord bring this early work of Bach to a close.      Joseph DuBose