Toccata in F major, BWV 540.1 – J. S. Bach | Piping Up: Selects (Joseph Peeples)

Joseph Peeples performs J. S. Bach’s Toccata in F major, BWV 540.1, on the Aeolian-Skinner Organ in the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Temple Square (Salt Lake City, Utah).

Like most of Bach’s organ works, the Toccata in F major (BWV 540.1) was probably composed during the composer’s service as court organist in Weimar, where he lived and worked from 1708 to 1717. There is a possibility it could also date from the end of his career. Much of the difficulty with dating this particular work is that there is no surviving autograph manuscript. The pedal part also extends beyond the range of the pedals on any of the organs Bach played regularly in Weimar, suggesting this work may have possibly been written for a performance in Weißenfels, if not at a later time in a different city

Although this toccata is usually paired with a corresponding fugue in the same key, to create the Toccata and Fugue in F major (BWV 540), this may be another of several cases where Bach composed two works independently, and it was only later that they were paired together. Bach was certainly inclined to compose keyboard works in pairs, a more improvisatory “prelude”-like opening followed by a more structured and formal fugue, as in the 48 preludes and fugues of The Well-Tempered Clavier or the various pairs of organ toccatas (or preludes, or fantasia) and fugues. But that wasn’t always the case.

At over 400 measures, this toccata is among the longest Bach wrote for organ, and there is a suggestion among some scholars that this indicates he may have composed it as a single-movement work t first. Recently, the Toccata in F major has often been performed on its own anyway, excerpted as a standalone showpiece.

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