Johann Sebastian Bach

Many of Johann Sebastian Bach's works are generally forgotten. This is particularly true of Bach's earliest compositions. The Toccata in C minor is no exception. Probably among Bach's earliest works (certainly written before he was twenty-five), this work takes the North German-style toccata of Buxtehude, with its alternation between improvisatory and contrapuntal sections, as its model. Rather than the Prelude/Toccata and Fugue combinations that dominate Bach's well-known organ repertoire, this manualiter (hands-only) toccata is a continuous stream of music; the opening fantasy blends into the adagio and then into the fugue.

The first twelve measures are a blinding virtuosic display, utilizing scales and arpeggios rather than melody. This moves directly into an imitative adagio section. Based loosely on an ascending natural minor scale, the music thickens and modulates through several keys. As this section progresses, the imitative quality gives way to a more dramatic and improvisatory section before proceeding to the fugue.

The head of Bach's rather conventional fugue subject is based on a nearly unadorned broken triad. Though Bach employs some interesting techniques, this fugue lacks the tight developmental intensity of those from later in Bach's life. Perhaps this is because Bach uses very few harmonic regions for the statement of the fugue. Also, after several minutes Bach interrupts the fugue with a brief fantasia-like passage reminiscent of the opening, and then resumes the fugue, in the original key, with few changes from the first section (there is a thicker texture, some improvisatory interruptions and new harmonic regions). The piece ends with a slow section followed by a rapid finale, both in a free-composed form, to round out the composition.