Toccata and Fugue in F major, BWV 540

Formation

The creation of the work can not be determined unambiguously: Many believe that Bach put together two previously separated from each other resulting works at a work of art. The emergence of the Toccata is therefore to the period after 1714, which estimated the joint to the period before 1731, both parts that are intended for Förner organ on new Augustus Castle, the residence of the Duchy of Saxe - Weissenfels.

Score

Toccata

The Toccata begins with an extended linear canon over a pedal point in F major, after which followed from the material seemingly improvised solo pedal. The cannon is varied several times repeated in the dominant key of C major. This time there is a role change of hands, and the left hand leads the right. Again follows a long pedal solo. The two broad canon flourishes include 108 bars of the piece, the pedal solo 60 cycles. The Concerto - set has a seven-part structure. The Kanoni and pedal solos obtain the start on the root note F towards the dominant key of C major, and all the rest of the work with his concert three-part imitation is the harmonic return to F major. The formal model is unique in Bach's oeuvre. Bach has built here in the music even his family name: at one point sukkzessiv each other on the first beat in the four pedal cycles following the notes BACH can be heard. Rightly Hermann Keller expresses his enthusiasm is as follows:

At the beginning of the extended linear construction of the two canonic voices, the proud serenity of the solos in the pedal, the piercing chord bars, the fiery buoyancy of the two subjects, the brazen modulation shifts the inwardness of the three minor phrases, the magnificent conclusion with his famous reversal of Septimakkordes who would not enchant them?

Because of the magnitude of the pedal part, the work may have been composed specifically for the Förner Organ of the Castle Church New Castle Augustus in White Rock, which even then had a pedal compass to f1. The Toccata F ( as a prelude ) is the ratio of the greatest of Bach works in the format of a Toccata and Fugue. It is often considered as a showpiece, with the following fugue is omitted.

The rhythmic signature of the Toccata suggests a Passepied or Musette, although the monumental clock unit of work does not support this characterization. Just not the harmonic adventurousness: 45 cycles after the second pedal solo there in the Toccata a dominant seventh chord, which is deceptive released over the third inversion of the dominant intermediate in the Neapolitans. In particular, the doubled fundamental is detected, to move the line in the opposite movement chromatic outward. In the bass there is a descending augmented unison, the absolute can not be averted from the expected V.Stufe. The huge fallacy is Bach to three times in this piece; it is not intended to be idiomatic to Chopin and Tchaikovsky. (see below)

The double fugue is not well known. The first subject in the fugue is decorated chromatic and squiggly. The second subject has a lot of modulation shifts and is sometimes initially presented as a counter - subject of the first theme. The fugue is Bach's single continuous double fugue, in which two subjects are set out in separate parts and then combined. The effect is enhanced by the increasing rhythmic activity of the second subject matter and the frequent use of modulations in the last part of the joint.

The bravura of the Toccata in F with its pedal solos and his virtuosity on the manual forms a sharp contrast to the more sober opening of the joint. Both represent two distinct aspects of the Italian influence: the motoric rhythms and the follow -bound passage work of the Toccata and the traditional alla breve counterpoint of the fugue, with its Chromatisierungen, its harmonious thrust faults and uninterrupted series of subjects and responses. These techniques are very similar to those of the Dorian Toccata in D minor BWV 538

The aria in F major BWV 587 is assumed as an adapter for this composition, since it seems hard to imagine that Bach's Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major BWV 564 is the only 3-part of his organ compositions.

D: V7 resolves itself to V42 → ♭ II - Compare with Chopin's Nocturne Op. 48 no 1