Re: Bach Toccata's

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

On Tue, 19 Jan 1999, Andrew Lance wrote:

> > It's interesting to note that GG really *didn't* like these pieces much at all.
> > He was particularly critical of the fugues ("in need of a red editor's pen")
> 
> Yes, and with good reason.  The toccata's for harpsichord were 
> some of the first large-scale pieces Bach wrote for that instrument, 
> and as Gould rightly pointed out, they aren't very contrapuntal--that 
> is, relative to the complexity Bach would compose with later in his 
> life.  Speaking from a performance aspect, I find the voices in the 
> fugues difficult to perpetuate forward, something that Gould didn't 
> seem to have any problem with.  Because they are so harmonic, 
> the horizontal aspect just isn't very strong.

I agree that the fugal parts are less interesting/clever than Bach's
typical fugal work.  They seem more formulaic, and closer in technique to
Buxtehude than to later Bach.  One way I've found to make these work in
performance (and in performance of Buxtehude) is to look carefully for any
quirky spots and then capitalize on how momentarily surprising they are
within the blander context.  That is, a performance in strict rhythm seems
less successful in these pieces than in later Bach: the pieces need more
of the performer's intervention, need more of an improvisatory feel to
them as if the player is thinking moment to moment.

This "quirk quotient" idea is from GG, by the way: his writing about
Mendelssohn, not his performances of the Bach toccatas.

---

Here's a controversial theory for you: these seven toccatas are primarily
organ music, not harpsichord music (although they work well on instruments
other than the organ).

One can come to this conclusion by comparing textures with Bach's other
organ toccatas and preludes (very similar), or by simply trying the
toccatas on organ: they're marvelous, especially when dramatic
registrational contrasts are chosen.  There is also the practical issue:
did the young JSB play harpsichord concerts?  No, but he played the organ
in church every week, and he was best known among many of his
contemporaries as a particularly good organist.  What instrument would he
choose then for ambitious and flashy showpieces?  Duh, the organ.

Or one can come to this conclusion by reading Robert Marshall.  His 1989
book _The Music of Johann Sebastian Bach: The Sources, the Style, the
Significance_ includes a chapter on this organ vs "Klavier" question (the
same chapter is also in the anthology _J S Bach as Organist_, edited by
George Stauffer and Ernest May, 1986).  Marshall notes manuscript sources
that explicitly say _manualiter_ for these toccatas, which would be an
unnecessary marking if these were harpsichord pieces.  He also points out
the keyboard compass, as the toccatas all stay between C and c''', never
below or above: many of the harpsichord works stray outside this range.
Furthermore, the organs available to Bach early in his career didn't have
low C# or Eb on the manual, and these notes are absent from all the
toccatas except the f# minor (which Marshall argues is from Bach's Weimar
period, where the organ did have those notes...the piece seems later in
style anyway, for other reasons in addition to this).  The toccatas have
been published in Heinz Lohmann's organ edition since 1979.

(And yes, there is an organ recording of the d minor toccata, BWV 913:
Leonhardt, 1988, dhm 7868-2-RC.  And several recordings of the
Well-Tempered Clavier on organ....)

Bradley Lehman ~ Harrisonburg VA, USA ~ 38.45716N+78.94565W
bpl@umich.edu ~ http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/ 

"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music 
and cats." - Albert Schweitzer