Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565

Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565

Performed by Ashtar Moïra on organ

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The Toccata and Fugue in D minor,

The piece has been subject to a wide, and often conflicting, variety of analyses. It is often described as a type of program music depicting a storm, while its depiction in Fantasia is suggestive of non-representational or absolute music. Scholars such as Peter Williams and Rolf Dietrich Claus argued against its authenticity, while Christoph Wolff defended the attribution to Bach. Other commentators ignored the doubts over its authenticity, or considered the attribution issue undecided.

The only extant near-contemporary source for BWV 565 is an undated copy by Johannes Ringk.^[3][4] According to the description provided by the Berlin State Library, where the manuscript is kept, and similar bibliographic descriptions, e.g. in the RISM catalogue, Ringk created his copy between 1740 and 1760.^[5][6] As far as is known, Ringk produced his first copy of a Bach score in 1730 when he was 12.^[3][7] According to Dietrich Kilian, who edited BWV 565 for the New Bach Edition, Ringk made his copy of the Toccata and Fugue between 1730 and 1740.^[7] In his critical commentary for Breitkopf & Härtel's 21st-century revised edition of the score, Jean-Claude Zehnder narrows the time of origin of the manuscript down to around the middle of the first half of the 1730s, based on an analysis of the evolution of Ringk's handwriting.^[3] At the time Ringk was a student of Bach's former student^[8] Johann Peter Kellner at Gräfenroda, and probably faithfully copied what his teacher put before him.^[3] There are some errors in the score such as note values not adding up to fill a measure correctly. Such defects show a carelessness deemed typical of Kellner, who left over 60 copies of works by Bach.^[3][9]

The title page of Ringk's manuscript writes the title of the work in Italian as Toccata con Fuga, names Johann Sebastian Bach as the composer of the piece, and indicates its

Ringk's manuscript does not use a separate staff for the pedal part, which was common in the 18th century (notes to be played on the pedal were indicated by "p." being written at the start of the sequence). Printed editions of the BWV 565 organ score invariably write the pedal line on a separate staff. In Ringk's manuscript the upper staff is written down using the

All other extant manuscript copies of the score date from at least several decades later: some of these, written in the 19th century, are related with each other in that they have similar solutions to the defects in the Ringk manuscript. Whether these derive from an earlier manuscript independent from Ringk's (possibly in the

The name "Toccata" is most probably a later addition, similar to the title of Toccata, Adagio and Fugue, BWV 564, because in the Baroque era such organ pieces would most commonly be called simply Prelude (Praeludium, etc.) or Prelude and Fugue.^[11] Ringk's copy abounds in Italian tempo markings, fermatas (a characteristic feature of Ringk's copies) and staccato dots, all very unusual features for pre-1740 German music.^[2]

BWV 565 exhibits a typical simplified north German structure with a short, free opening (toccata), a longer fugal section (fugue), and a short free closing section which is not officially named by notation.^[2]

The Toccata begins with a single-voice flourish in the upper ranges of the keyboard, doubled at the octave and ornamented with a lower mordent. It then spirals toward the bottom, where a diminished seventh chord appears (which actually implies a dominant chord with a minor 9th against a tonic pedal), built one note at a time. This resolves into a D major chord:^[2]

Opening of the toccata played on the Flentrop organ at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music

Three short passages follow, each reiterating a short motif and doubled at the octave. The section ends with a diminished seventh chord which resolved into the tonic, D minor, through a flourish. The second section of the Toccata is a number of loosely connected figurations and flourishes; the pedal switches to the dominant key, A minor. This section segues into the third and final section of the Toccata, which consists almost entirely of a passage doubled at the sixth and comprising reiterations of the same three-note figure, similar to doubled passages in the first section. After a brief pedal flourish, the piece ends with a D minor suspended chord which eventually resolves.^[2]

The subject of the four-voice fugue is made up entirely of sixteenth notes, with an implied pedal point set against a brief melodic subject that first falls, then rises. Such violinistic figures are frequently encountered in Baroque music and that of Bach, both as fugue subjects and as material in non-imitative pieces. Unusually, the answer is in the subdominant key, rather than the traditional dominant. Although technically a four-part fugue, most of the time there are only three voices, and some of the interludes are in two, or even one voice (notated as two). Although only simple triadic harmony is employed throughout the fugue, there is an unexpected C minor subject entry, and furthermore, a solo pedal statement of the subject—a unique feature for a Baroque fugue.^[16] Immediately after the final subject entry, the fugue resolves to a sustained B♭ major chord.^[2][15]

A multi-sectional

The performance time of the piece is usually around nine minutes, but shorter performance times (e.g. 8:15)[17] and execution times of over 10:30^[18] exist. The first section of the piece, the Toccata, takes somewhat less than a third of the total performance time.^[19][20]

As was common practice for German music of the 17th century, the intended registration is not specified, and performers' choices vary from simple solutions such as organo pleno to exceedingly complex ones, like those described by Harvey Grace.^[21]

In the first century of its existence the entire reception history of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor consists of being saved from oblivion by maybe not more than a single manuscript copy.^[22] Then it took about a century from its first publication as a little-known organ composition by Johann Sebastian Bach to becoming one of the signature pieces of the composer. The composition's third century took it from Bach's most often recorded organ piece to a composition with an unclear origin. Despite Mendelssohn's opinion that it was "at the same time learned and something for the people",^[23] followed by a fairly successful piano transcription in the second half of the 19th century,^[24] it was not until the 20th century that it rose above the average notability of an organ piece by Bach.^[22][25] The work's appearance (in an orchestral transcription by Leopold Stokowski) in the 1940 Walt Disney film Fantasia contributed to its popularity,^[26] around which time scholars started to seriously doubt its attribution to Bach.^[27]

The composition has been deemed both "particularly suited to the organ"

What remains is "the most famous organ work in existence",[37] that in its rise to fame was helped by various arrangements, including bombastic piano settings,^[38] versions for full symphonic orchestra,^[39] and alternative settings for more modest solo instruments.^[2]

In 1833, BWV 565 was published for the first time, in the third of three bundles of "little-known" organ compositions by Bach.

A facsimile of Ringk's manuscript was published in 2000.[4] In the 21st century, the facsimile became available online,^[5] as well as various downloadable files of previously printed editions.^[50] In 2010, Breitkopf & Härtel initiated a new edition of Bach's organ works, with BWV 565 appearing in its fourth volume.^[22]

The first major public performance was by Mendelssohn, on 6 August 1840, in Leipzig. The concert was very well received by the critics, among them Robert Schumann, who admired the work's famous opening as an example of Bach's sense of humor.^[51] Franz Liszt adopted the piece into his organ repertoire. He used the glockenspiel stop for the Prestissimo triplets in the opening section, and the quintadena stop for the repeated notes in bars 12–15.^[52]

The work was first recorded (in abridged form as "Toccata and Finale") by John J. McClellan on the Salt Lake Tabernacle organ in Salt Lake City in late August or early September 1910 by the Columbia Graphophone Company, who released it in the US in 1911 on Columbia 10-inch disc A945 and in the UK on Columbia-Rena disc 1704,^[53] which is one of the first commercial pipe organ recordings. In 1926, the organ version of BWV 565 was recorded on 78 rpm discs.^[54] In a 1928 concert program, Schweitzer indicated BWV 565 as one of Bach's "best-known" compositions, considering it to be a youth work.^[55] Schweitzer's first recording of the piece was issued in 1935.^[56] In 1951, he recorded the work again.^[18]

In the 1950s, a recording of Helmut Walcha playing BWV 565 on organ was released.^[57] In that, and subsequent releases of Walcha's recordings of BWV 565 on Deutsche Grammophon (DG), there is an obvious evolution of the work from "one among many" organ compositions by Bach to a definite signature piece by the composer. In early Archiv Produktion releases, the list on the sleeve contained the organ compositions in the order they appeared on the recording without distinction;^[57] in the 1960s, BWV 565 began to be listed first;^[58] by the 1980s, the font size for BWV 565 was larger than that of the other compositions;^[59] and in the 1990s, Walcha's 1963 recording of the piece became the only piece by Bach included in DG's Classic Mania CD set with popular tunes by various classical composers.^[20] Similarly, the album sleeves of Marie-Claire Alain's recordings of BWV 565 in the 1960s listed the piece in the same font as the other recorded works, but by the 1980s it was in a larger font.^[60] US record companies seemed faster in putting BWV 565 forward as Bach's best-known organ piece. In 1955, E. Power Biggs recorded the Toccata 14 times, played on different European organs, and Columbia issued those recordings on a single album.^[61]

Hans-Joachim Schulze describes the force of the piece on a record sleeve:^[62]

Here is elemental and unbounded power, in impatiently ascending and descending runs and rolling masses of chords, that only with difficulty abates sufficiently to give place to the logic and balance of the fugue. With the reprise of the initial Toccata, the dramatic idea reaches its culmination amidst flying scales and with an ending of great sonority.

Organists recording BWV 565 more than once include Jean Guillou,^[63] Lionel Rogg^[64] and Wolfgang Rübsam.^[65] Some musicians, such as Karl Richter, who did not record organ performances very often, included BWV 565 in their anthologies.^[66] By the end of the century, hundreds of organists had recorded BWV 565.^[67] In the 21st century, several recordings of BWV 565 became available online, such as a recording included in James Kibbie's Bach Organ Works project and John Scott Whiteley's broadcast for BBC TV^[68] made in 2001.^[69]

Bach's Toccata and Fugue was not performed on the organ exclusively. The title page of the first publication of the piece already indicated that performance on the piano by one or two players was possible.[40] From 1868 to 1881, Karl Tausig's piano transcription of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor was performed four times in the Gewandhaus in Leipzig.^[71][72] Many more piano transcriptions of BWV 565 were published, for instance by Louis Brassin,^[73][74] Ferruccio Busoni,^[75] Alfred Cortot, and by Max Reger in transcriptions for both piano two hands and four hands.^[76]

Tausig's version of the work was recorded on piano rolls several times in the first decades of the 20th century.^[77][78] In the mid-1920s, Marie Novello recorded the Tausig piano version of BWV 565 on 78 rpm discs.^[79] Percy Grainger's 1931 recording on the piano, based on the Tausig and Busoni transcriptions, was written out as a score by Leslie Howard, and then recorded by other artists.^[80][81] Ignaz Friedman recorded the piano version he had published in 1944.^[82][83] From the 1950s to the first decades of the 21st century, there were half a dozen recordings of Tausig's piano version,^[84] and several dozen of Busoni's.^[85]

In Johann Nikolaus Forkel's early 19th-century biography of Bach, the work is left unmentioned. Forkel probably did not even know of the composition.^[86] In C. L. Hilgenfeldt's biography it is merely listed among the published works. Hilgenfeldt considers the Toccata and Fugue in F major the most accomplished of Bach's toccatas for organ.^[87] In Karl Hermann Bitter's 1865 Bach biography, BWV 565 is only listed in an appendix.^[88]

In 1873, Philipp Spitta devoted somewhat less than a page to the work in the first volume of his Bach biography. He assumed the work was written in the first year of Bach's second Weimar period (1708–1717). He saw more north German characteristics (Buxtehude's restless style) in the form of the Toccata, rather than south German (Pachelbel's simple and quiet approach). Spitta considered the fugue "particularly suited to the organ, and more especially effective in the pedal part." His description of the piece refers to long sections that are surfeit: "rocking passages which have no connection whatever with the chief idea" and organ recitatives alternating with "ponderous, roaring masses of chords". Spitta likened some phrases of the Toccata and Fugue to another early work, the Fugue in G minor, BWV 578.^[13][14]

Spitta also detects a rhythmic figure that appears briefly in the concluding part of the work (bar 137) which, extensively elaborated, reappears in the keyboard

Up to this point, none of the biographers seem to have given any special attention to BWV 565. If mentioned, it is listed or described along with other organ compositions, but is far from being considered the best or the most famous of Bach's organ compositions, or even of his toccatas. However, that was about to change. In 1908, Schweitzer reworked his biography for its first German edition. In that edition he indicates the work as "well known".[93] After listing several organ works in which Bach showed himself a pupil of Buxtehude, Frescobaldi, and various contemporary Italian composers, Schweitzer describes the Toccata and Fugue in D minor as a work in which the composer rises to independent mastery:

In the D minor toccata and fugue, the strong and ardent spirit has finally realised the laws of form. A single dramatic ground-thought unites the daring passage work of the toccata, that seems to pile up like wave on wave; and in the fugue the intercalated passages in broken chords only serve to make the climax all the more powerful.^[29]

In Hubert Parry's 1909 Bach biography, the work is qualified as "well known" and "one of the most effective of [Bach's] works in every way". He calls the Toccata "brilliantly rhapsodical", more or less follows Spitta in the description of the fugue, and is most impressed by the coda: "It would be hard to find a concluding passage more imposing or more absolutely adapted to the requirements of the instrument than this coda." Apart from seeing Buxtehude's influence, he likens the theme of the fugue to the theme of the fugue of Prelude and Fugue in B minor, BWV 544, which he considers a late work.^[94]

In the 1979 first volume of his Bach biography, Alberto Basso calls BWV 565 "famosissimo" (most famous) and "celebratissima" (most celebrated), maintaining that the popularity of these works hinges entirely on this composition. He sees it as a youth work, composed before 1708, that with its underdeveloped fugue is stylistically eclectic but unified without breaking continuity. He links it to the northern school, and mentions Tausig, Busoni and Stokowki as influencing its trajectory. Basso warns against seeing too much in the composition. He feels it may be within reach of everyone but is neither an incantation, nor ridden with symbolism and even less a sum of whatever.^[95]

In his 1999 Bach biography, Klaus Eidam [de] devotes a few pages to the Toccata and Fugue. He considers it an early work, probably composed for testing the technical qualities of a new organ. He feels that the crescendo that develops through arpeggios, gradually building up to the use of hundreds of pipes at the same time, can show exactly at what point the wind system of the organ might become inadequate. In his view, some of the more unusual characteristics of the piece can be explained as resulting from Bach's capacity as an organ tester.^[96]

Christoph Wolff, in his 2000 Bach biography, sees BWV 565 as an early work.^[97] In his view, it is "as refreshingly imaginative, varied, and ebullient as it is structurally undisciplined and unmastered".^[98]

Before his 1906 Bach biography, André Pirro had already written a book on Bach's organ works. In that book he devoted less than a page to BWV 565, and considers it some kind of program music depicting a tempest, including flashes of lightning and rumbling thunder. Pirro supposes Bach had success with this music in the smaller German courts he visited. All in all, he judges the music as superficial, not more than a stepping stone in Bach's development.^[30][99]

In the early 1920s, Harvey Grace published a series of articles on Bach's organ works. He considers that the notes of the piece are not too difficult to play, but that an organist performing the work is primarily challenged by interpretation. He gives tips on how to perform the work so that it does not sound like a "meaningless scramble". He describes the fugue as slender and simple, but only a "very sketchy example of the form". In his description of the piece, Grace refers to Pirro, elaborating Pirro's "storm" analogy, and like Pirro, he seems convinced Bach went touring with the piece. His suggestions for the organ registration make comparisons with how the piece would be played by an orchestra.^[21]

In 1948, Hermann Keller wrote that the Toccata and Fugue was uncharacteristic for Bach, but nonetheless bore some of his distinguishing marks.^[100] His description of the piece echoes earlier storm analogies. Keller sees the opening bars' unison passages as "descending like a lightning flash, the long roll of thunder of the broken chords of the full organ, and the stormy undulation of the triplets".^[36]

In 1980,

J. S. Bach as Organist, a 1986 collection of essays edited by George Stauffer and Ernest May, discussed the registration Bach would have used for BWV 565.[103]

Part 1

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Part 2

Stokowski's orchestration performed by himself and the Philadelphia Orchestra, reissued on two sides of a 78 rpm disc in the late 1920s

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Around the same time as Grace made comparisons with an orchestral version in his performance suggestions, Edward Elgar was producing orchestrations of two organ pieces by Bach, which did not include BWV 565. Elgar did not particularly like the work, nor Schweitzer's glowing comments about it.^[104]

In 1927, Leopold Stokowski recorded his orchestration of BWV 565 with the Philadelphia Orchestra.^[39] Soon the idea was emulated by other musicians. An orchestration was performed in Carnegie Hall in 1928, Henry Wood (pseudonymously, as "Paul Klenovsky") arranged his orchestration before the end of the decade. By the mid-1930s, Leonidas Leonardi had published his orchestration, and Alois Melichar's orchestration was recorded in 1939.^{[105][106][25][107]}

In 1947, Eugene Ormandy recorded his orchestration of the piece with the Philadelphia Orchestra.^[108] The score of Stokowski's arrangement was published in 1952.^[109][25] Other orchestrations of the piece were provided by Fabien Sevitzky,^[110] René Leibowitz (1958),^[111] Lucien Cailliet (1967)^[112] and Stanisław Skrowaczewski (1968).^[113]

BWV 565 was used as film music well before the sound film era, becoming a cliché to illustrate horror and villainy. Its first uses in sound film included the 1931 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the 1934 film The Black Cat.^{[114][115][116][117]}

External audio
Bach's Tocccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, as arranged and performed by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra for the soundtrack of Fantasia, as released in 1950, at Internet Archive

After 1936, another approach to using BWV 565 in film was under consideration.

A certain uneasiness regarding the authorship of BWV 565 had been around long before the 1980s. From Hilgenfeldt in 1850, to Elgar in the 1920s, to Basso in the late 1970s, the extraordinary popularity of the piece seems to have taken scholars and musicians by surprise. Of Mendelssohn's prophecy that it was something for both the erudite and the masses, only the latter part had been fulfilled. Some scholars who analysed the composition's counterpoint felt it was substandard.[21]^{[101][130][131]} They said it was stylistically too close to the galant style of the later 18th century to be an early 18th-century composition.^[22] Its presumed time of composition shifted around. Some felt the composition was too modern to have been composed by a young Bach,^[92][101] or too simplistic to have been composed by a middle-aged Bach.^[95][131] Although many commentators have invoked Bach's genius to explain the dislocated modernity in an immature composition,^[28][36][96] an increasing number of scholars felt unsatisfied with such an intangible explanation.^[27]

In a 1981 article, Peter Williams reiterated the speculations, from which he saw a way out of the conundrum, already featured in his 1980 book on Bach's organ compositions:^[27]

• The piece was originally composed for violin, not necessarily by Bach (that would explain its "simplicity");
• It was later transcribed for the organ, not necessarily by Bach (that would explain its "modernity").

The analysis of the material sources for the piece, its oldest surviving manuscripts, although insufficiently pursued according to some scholars,^[132] was seen as too limited to give a conclusive answer to these questions. What was available from that branch of the research could be explained in opposite ways.^[133] Likewise, whether the more elaborate stylistic evidence was considered conclusive or merely circumstantial, depended on who was trying to prove what.^[22]

In 1982, David Humphreys suggested that BWV 565 may have been composed and/or arranged by Kellner, or by someone from the circle around Kellner.^[27][134] Despite many stylistic similarities,^[135] however, Kellner was ruled out a quarter of a century later: "in comparison with the style of Kellner, BWV 565 more resembles the style of J. S. Bach";^[136] "many of Kellner's keyboard pieces revealed that his style boasts pronounced galant elements ... this clearly stands in strong contrast to the dramatic style of the Toccata BWV 565".^[22]

A violin composition by Bach's eldest son

In 1961, Antony Davies remarked that the Toccata was void of counterpoint.[130] Half a decade later, BWV 565 was further questioned. Walter Emery advocated that scepticism was a necessary condition to approaching the history of Bach's organ compositions,^[140] and Friedrich Blume saw problems with the traditional historiography of Bach's youth.^[141] Roger Bullivant thought the fugue too simple for Bach and saw characteristics that were incompatible with his style:^[131]

• Conclusion of the piece on a minor plagal cadence
• A pedal statement of the subject, unaccompanied by other voices
• Trill in bars 86 to 90

These doubts about the authorship of BWV 565 were elaborated by Peter Williams in a 1981 article. Hypotheses proposed by Williams in that article included that BWV 565 may have been composed after 1750 and may have been based on an earlier composition for another instrument, supposedly violin. Williams added more stylistic problems to the ones already mentioned by Bullivant, among others the

In 1995, Rolf Dietrich Claus decided against the authenticity of BWV 565, mainly based on the stylistic characteristics of the piece.[132] He named another problem—in its first measure the composition contains a C♯, a note organs in Bach's time rarely had, and which Bach almost never used in his organ compositions.^[8] In his book on BWV 565, which he expanded in 1998 to counter some of the criticisms it received, Claus also dismisses the prior-version options suggested by Williams, noting that the toccata was an unknown genre for violin solo compositions of the time.^[142][143] Several essays in John Butt's Cambridge Companion on Bach discuss the attribution problems of BWV 565.^[144] Other biographers and scholars have left these attribution and prior-version theories unmentioned,^[96] or explained the atypical characteristics of the composition by indicating it was a very early composition by Bach, probably written during his stay in Arnstadt (1703–1706).^[97]

At the end of the 20th century, Hans Fagius wrote:

... the fact remains that the Toccata is strikingly unorganistic and modern to have been written by Bach around 1705, even if the form is that of North German toccata. There are, however, few organ pieces with so much spirit and drive, and why should not a genius like Bach, in youthful high spirits, have produced this unique work, which is in some respects half a century before its time and which could achieve a place as one of the most beloved compositions in all of music history?^[28]

The authorship debate has continued in the 21st century. Wolff calls it a pseudo-problem.^[145] Williams suggested that the piece may have been created by another composer who must have been born in the beginning of the 18th century, since details of style (such as triadic harmony, spread chords, and the use of solo pedal) may indicate post-1730, or even post-1750 idioms.^[2] Statistical analysis conducted by Peter van Kranenburg in 2006 confirmed the fugue was atypical for Bach,^[137] but failed to find a composer more likely to have composed it than Bach.^[37] David Schulenberg feels that the attribution of BWV 565 to Bach is doubtful.^[146] Richard Douglas Jones takes no position with regard to the composition's authenticity.^[147] In 2009, Reinmar Emans wrote that Claus and Wolff had diametrically opposed views on the reliability of Ringk as a copyist, inspired by their respective positions in the authenticity debate, and thinks that sort of speculation unhelpful.^[133]

The other hypothesis elaborated by Williams is that BWV 565 may have been a transcription of a lost solo violin piece. Parallel octaves and the preponderance of thirds and sixths may be explained by a transcriber's attempt to fill in harmony which, if preserved as is, would be inadequately thin on a pipe organ. This is corroborated by the fact that the subject of the fugue, and certain passages (such as bars 12–15), are evidently inspired by string music. Bach is known to have transcribed solo violin works for organ at least twice: the first movement of the

This notion inspired a new theory of adaptation: the reconstruction. Reconstructions have been applied to several other works by Bach, with variable success.[149] A reconstruction for violin has been played by Jaap Schröder^[150] and Simon Standage.^[151] The violinist Andrew Manze produced his own reconstruction, also in A minor, which he has performed and recorded.^[152] In 2000, Mark Argent proposed a scordatura five-stringed cello instead.^[35] Williams proposed a violoncello piccolo or a five-stringed cello as alternative possibilities in 2003.^[2] A new violin version was created by scholar Bruce Fox-Lefriche in 2004.^[153] In 2005, Eric Lewin Altschuler wrote that if the first version of BWV 565 was written for a stringed instrument the most likely candidate would have been a lute.^[154] Yet another violin version was created by Chad Kelly and performed by Rachel Podger on her 2022 album Tutta Sola.^[155]

In 1997, Bernhard Billeter proposed a

In 1935, Hermann Hesse wrote a poem about the piece, Zu einer Toccata von Bach ("On a toccata by Bach"), which contributed to its fame.^[22][156]

Recordings of BWV 565 that have appeared on popular music charts include Sky's 1980 rock-inspired recording (#83 on Billboard Hot 100, #5 on UK Singles Chart)^[157] and Vanessa-Mae's 1994 violin recording (#24 on the Billboard charts).^[158] In 1993, Salvatore Sciarrino made an arrangement for solo flute,^[159] recorded by Mario Caroli.^[160] A version for solo horn was arranged by Zsolt Nagy^[161] and has been performed by Frank Lloyd. Another version for solo viola was arranged and recorded by Marco Misciagna.^[162] In the mid-1990s, Fred Mills, then trumpet player for Canadian Brass, created an adaptation for brass quintet that became a worldwide standard for brass ensembles.^[163][164] 2 Unlimited's 1994 hit "The Real Thing" uses BWV 565 and, in a list published by Classic FM and PRS for Music, was revealed to be among the best-selling pop singles to incorporate classical music.^[165]

In 2020, rapper Playboi Carti interpolated the piece within his song "Vamp Anthem".

References consisting of a last name and date refer to an entry in the Sources section below:

• when followed by "(score)" → see Score subsection
• when followed by "(recording)" → see Recordings subsection
• all others, unless the full citation is given in the reference, see Writings subsection

Sources

Score

Background color: green: online version of score available; red: introduction and/or commentary available

Version provided by	Date	Place	Publisher	Series	Volume	BWV 565
Ringk, Johannes	c. 1740–1760	Germany	Berlin State Library (facsimile)	RISM 467300997 D-B Mus. ms. Bach p. 595][a]	Fascicle 8 (pp. 57–64)[a]	Toccata Con Fuga pedaliter ex d # di J. S. Bach[b]
Marx, Adolph Bernhard	1833	Leipzig	Breitkopf & Härtel	Johann Sebastian Bach's noch wenig bekannte Orgelcompositionen: auch am Pianoforte von einem oder zwei Spielern ausführbar	Vol. 3 (of 3)	No. 9 Toccata (pp. 12–19)[b]
Griepenkerl, Friedrich Konrad Roitzsch, Ferdinand	1846	Leipzig	C. F. Peters	Johann Sebastian Bach's Compositionen für die Orgel	Vol. IV (plate 243)	No. 4 (pp. 24 ff.)
Tausig, Karl	c. 1860s	Berlin	Schlesinger		Toccata und Fuge (D moll) für die Orgel (Pedal und Manual) von Johann Sebastian Bach für das Clavier zum Conzertvortrag frei bearbeitet	Toccata (pp. 2–6) – Fuge (pp. 7–15)[b]
Rust, Wilhelm	1867	Leipzig	Breitkopf & Härtel	Bach-Gesellschaft-Ausgabe	Band XV: Orgelwerke, Band 1 ("Vorwort")[a]	Toccata II (pp. 267–75)[b]
Bridge, John Frederick Higgs, James	1886	London	Novello & Co	The Organ Works of John Sebastian Bach	Book VI: Toccata, Preludes, and Fugues	No. 1 (pp. 2–9)
Reger, Max	1896	London	Augener	Selection of Joh. Seb. Bach's Organ Works transcribed for Pianoforte Duet	No. 2: Toccata & Fugue in D minor	Toccata und Fuge (pp. 2–21)[b]
Busoni, Ferruccio	1899	Leipzig	Breitkopf & Härtel	Zwei Orgeltoccaten = Two organ toccatas = Deux toccates d'orgue von Joh. Sebastian Bach auf das Pianoforte übertragen (BV B 29)	No. 2: Toccata in D moll = D minor = ré mineur (Toccata e fuga)	Toccata in D moll (pp. 2–17)[b]
Widor, Charles-Marie Schweitzer, Albert	1912	New York	G. Schirmer	Johann Sebastian Bach. Complete Organ Works: a critico-practical edition in eight volumes provided with a preface containing general observations on the manner of performing the preludes and fugues and suggestions for the interpretation of the compositions contained in each volume	Volume II: Preludes and fugues of the first master period	No. 15
Best, William Thomas Hull, Arthur Eaglefield	1914	London	Augener	Johann Sebastian Bach's Organ Works	Volume II: Preludes, Fugues, Fantasia and Toccatas	pp. 271 ff.
Friedman, Ignaz	1944	Melbourne	Allans Publishing			Toccata and Fugue (D minor)[b]
Stokowski, Leopold	1952	New York	Broude Brothers	Symphonic transcription published from the library of Leopold Stokowski.		Toccata and Fugue in D Minor Archived 2008-04-06 at the Wayback Machine (Duration: 9 minutes)
Kilian, Dietrich	1964	Kassel	Bärenreiter	New Bach Edition, Series IV: Organ Works	Organ Works 6: Preludes, Toccatas, Fantasias and Fugues II – Early Versions and Variants of I and II[a]	Toccata con Fuga in d BWV 565
Mills, Fred Canadian Brass	1990s	US	Hal Leonard	Brass Ensemble		Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
Zehnder, Jean-Claude	2011	Leipzig	Breitkopf & Härtel	Complete Organ Works – Breitkopf Urtext	Vol. 4: Toccatas and Fugues / Individual Works – with CD-ROM[a]	No. 3 Toccata et Fuga in d BWV 565 (pp. 56–65)
Notes ^ a b c d e introduction and/or commentary available ^ a b c d e f g online version of score available

Recordings

Last column sortable by performance time; Background-color: green: audio file available

Performed by	Date	Place	Issued by	Series	Volume	BWV 565
	between 1902 and 1915	New York	The Aeolian Company	Piano roll	Toccata and fugue in D minor arranged for pianoforte solo by C. Tausig	tempo 70; 28,5 cm
Bloomfield Zeisler, Fannie	1912		Welte-Mignon	Piano roll	Toccata & Fugue in D minor (Tausig transcription)	(9:19)
Novello, Marie	mid- 1920s	London	Edison Bell	Velvet Face	No. 676: Organ Toccata & Fugue: Pianoforte Solo (Bach, Tausig)	Two 78 rpm disc sides: Pt. 1, Pt. 2
Cunningham, G. D.	1926	Kingsway Hall, London	His Master's Voice		No. C 1291: Toccata and fugue in D minor	78 rpm disc
Stokowski, Leopold Philadelphia Orchestra	April 1927	Academy of Music, Philadelphia	Victor	Red Seal "Electric" recording	Toccata and Fugue in D minor (Stokowski transcription)	Two 78 rpm disc sides (8:53)
Schweitzer, Albert	1935	All Hallows-by-the-Tower, London	Columbia	Albert Schweitzer plays Bach[a]		No. 6 (9:04)
Stokowski, Leopold Philadelphia Orchestra	1940	Academy of Music, Philadelphia	Disney	Walt Disney's Fantasia – Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra: Remastered Original Soundtrack Edition (1990)	CD 1 (of 2)	Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 (9:22)
Walcha, Helmut	August 1947	Church of St. Jacob [de], Lübeck	Deutsche Grammophon	Archiv Produktion; Research period IX: Works by Johann Sebastian Bach; Series F: Organ works	Prelude and fugue, E minor, BWV 548; Prelude and fugue, A minor, BWV 551; Prelude and fugue, C major, BWV 547; Toccata and fugue, D minor, BWV 565	No. 4 (9:15)
Schweitzer, Albert	1951	Gunsbach, Alsace	Columbia	J. S. Bach: Organ Music	Vol. IV[a]	No. 3 (10:31)
Biggs, E. Power	1955	Europe (14 different organs)	Columbia	Bach: Toccata in D minor (A Hi-Fi Adventure)	e.g. London, Royal Festival Hall	Side 2 No. 6
Biggs, E. Power	1960	Busch-Reisinger Museum , Harvard	Columbia	Bach: Organ Favorites	Bach: Great Organ Favorites (Columbia 42644, re-issued as CD by CBS in 2011, with liner notes by Hans-Joachim Schulze)	Toccata (2:28), Fugue (5:54)
Walcha, Helmut	1963	Grote Sint Laurenskerk, Alkmaar	Deutsche Grammophon		Classic Mania (issued 1991)	CD 2, No. 4 (2:37, Toccata only – Fugue of that 1963 recording had been 6:52)
Alain, Marie-Claire	1959–1968	Sankta Maria kyrka [sv], Helsingborg	Erato	J. S. Bach – L'Œuvre Pour Orgue – Intégrale en 24 disques	Vol. 3: Toccatas & Fugues en ré mineur bwv 565 – en fa majeur bwv 540 / Préludes & Fugues en do majeur bwv 545 – en mi majeur bwv 533 – Fugue en sol mineur bwv 578	Toccata & Fugue en ré mineur bwv 565 (8:42)
Richter, Karl	1964	Jaegersborg Church [da], Copenhagen	Deutsche Grammophon		Johann Sebastian Bach: Toccata & Fuge / Famous Organ Works	Toccata & Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 (8:56)
Whiteley, John Scott	2001	Bath Abbey, Bath	BBC TV	21st-Century Bach	Bach, The Complete Organ Works, Vols 1 and 2	Toccata and fugue in D Minor, BWV 565 (8:41)
Alain, Marie-Claire	1982	Collégiale de Saint-Donat [fr], Drôme	Erato		Toccata & Fugue / Passacaglia / Fugue / Concerto / Fantaisie & Fugue	Toccata & Fugue en ré mineur D minor/D Moll BWV 565 (8:15)
Preston, Simon	1988	Kreuzbergkirche [de], Bonn	Deutsche Grammophon		Toccata & Fugue BWV 565 – Preludes & Fugues BWV 532 & 552 – Fantasia BWV 572 – Pastorale BWV 590	Toccata: Adagio (2:31) Fugue (5:54)
Fagius, Hans	1988	Fredrik Church, Karlskrona	Brilliant Classics	Bach Edition	CD 151 – Organ Works: Toccata & Fuga BWV 565/Concerto BWV 594/Praeludium & Fuga BWV 548/"Allein Gott in der Höh' sei Ehr" BWV 711–715/717 (issued c. 2000)	Nos. 1–2 (8:54)
Carlos, Wendy	1992		Telarc	Switched-On Bach 2000 (25th anniversary sequel to Switched-On Bach, 1968)	Toccata & Fugue In D Minor
Kibbie, James	2007–2009	Stadtkirche [de], Waltershausen	Block M Records (University of Michigan)	Bach Organ Works	BWV 565: Toccata con Fuga in d / Toccata and Fugue in D Minor	AAC – MP3[a] (9:16)
Notes ^ a b c audio file available

Writings

• Altschuler, Eric Lewin (Winter 2005). "Were Bach's Toccata and Fugue BWV565 and the Ciacconia from BWV1004 Lute Pieces?".
  JSTOR 30044126
  .
• Argent, Mark (Autumn 2000). "Decoding Bach 3. Stringing Along".
  JSTOR 1004394
  .
• ISBN 978-3039103751. Originally published in Die Musikforschung
  Vol. 50 No. 1, January–March 1997, p. 77–80.
• doi:10.1093/mq/LIV.1.1
  . Retrieved 16 November 2023.
• Bullivant, Roger (1971). Fugue. London: Hutchinson.
  ISBN 978-0091084400
  .
• ISBN 978-0521587808
  .
• Claus, Rolf Dietrich (1998). Zur Echtheit von Toccata und Fuge d-moll BWV 565. Cologne: Dohr, 2nd ed.
  ISBN 978-3925366550. (review by Yo Tomita Archived 2015-08-24 at the Wayback Machine
  )
• Claus, Rolf Dietrich, ed. (2000). Toccata und Fuge d-Moll BWV 565: Faksimile der ältesten überlieferten Abschrift von Johannes Ringk [Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565: Facsimile of the earliest extant copy by Johannes Ringk] (in German). Cologne: Dohr.
  ISBN 978-3925366789
  .
• Claus, Rolf Dietrich (2018). Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 – A Work by J. S. Bach?. Translated by John Sayer (2nd ed.). At the Sign of the Pipe.
  ISBN 978-0956710260. (review by David Baker, Organists' Review
  )
• Dörffel, Alfred (1884). Geschichte der Gewandhausconcerte zu Leipzig vom 25. November 1781 bis 25. November 1881: Im Auftrage der Concert-Direction verfasst. Leipzig.
• ISBN 0465018610
  .
• Emans, Reinmar (2004). "Vom überstrapazierten Autor: Biographische Konstruktionen bei Echtheitskritik" pp. 17–29 in Musik und Biographie: Festschrift für Rainer Cadenbach. edited by Cordula Heymann-Wentzel and Johannes Laas. Königshausen & Neumann.
  ISBN 978-3826028045
• Emans, Reinmar (2009). "Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Textkritik bei Incerta" pp. 103–11 in Was ist Textkritik?: Zur Geschichte und Relevanz eines Zentralbegriffs der Editionswissenschaft edited by Gertraud Mitterauer, Ulrich Müller, Margarete Springeth and Verena Vitzthum. Walter de Gruyter.
  ISBN 978-3484970786
• Emery, Walter (July 1966). "Some Speculations on the Development of Bach's Organ Style", pp. 596–603 in The Musical Times, Vol. 107, No. 1481.
• Fox-Lefriche, Bruce (2004). The Greatest Violin Sonata That J.S. Bach Never Wrote. Strings xix/3:122, October 2004, 43–55.
• Glaus, Daniel (2013). "Albert Schweitzer als Organist", pp. 291–304 in Albert Schweitzer: Facetten einer Jahrhundertgestalt, edited by Hubert Steinke, Angela Berlis, Andreas Wagner and Fritz von Gunten. Haupt Verlag AG.
  ISBN 978-3258077796
• Novello & Co
  .
• Gwinner, Volker (1968). "Bachs d-moll-Tokkata als Credo-Vertonung" in Musik und Kirche Vol. 38 pp. 240–42.
• Humphreys, David (1982). The D Minor Toccata BWV 565. Early Music Vol. 10, No. 2.
• ISBN 0198164408
• C. F. Peters
  .
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke. Kassel: Bärenreiter
  .
• Kranenburg, Peter van (2006). "Composer attribution by quantifying compositional strategies" pp. 375–76 in ISMIR 2006: 7th International Conference on Music Information Retrieval – Proceedings. Canada: University of Victoria.
  ISBN 1550583492
• Kranenburg, Peter van (2007). "Assessing Disputed Attributions for Organ Fugues in the J. S. Bach (BWV) Catalogue" Ch. 7 pp. 120–37 in Tonal Theory for the Digital Age (Computing in Musicology Vol. 15) edited by Walter B. Hewlett, Eleanor Selfridge-Field, Edmund Correia. University of Michigan.
  ISBN 978-0936943176 (replaced by Kranenburg 2008
  )
• Kranenburg, Peter van (September 2008). "On Measuring Musical Style – The Case of Some Disputed Organ Fugues in the J. S. Bach (BWV) Catalogue". Utrecht University.
• Kranenburg, Peter van (4 October 2010). "On Measuring Musical Style – The Case of Some Disputed Organ Fugues in the J. S. Bach (BWV) Catalogue" Ch. 5 pp. 71–89 in A Computational Approach to Content-Based Retrieval of Folk-Song Melodies. Utrecht University.
  ISBN 978-9039353936
• Newman, Anthony (1995). Bach and the Baroque: European Source Materials from the Baroque and Early Classical Periods with Special Emphasis on the Music of J.S. Bach. Pendragon Press.
  ISBN 978-0945193647
• Parry, Hubert (1909). Johann Sebastian Bach: The Story of the Development of a Great Personality. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons; London: The Knickerbocker Press.
• Pirro, André (1895). L'orgue de Jean-Sébastien Bach. Paris: Fischbacher.
• Pirro, André (1902). Johann Sebastian Bach: The Organist and his Works for the Organ. New York: G. Schirmer
• Schulenberg, David (2006). The Keyboard Music of J.S. Bach, second edition. Routledge.
  ISBN 978-0415974004
• Charles Marie Widor. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel
  .
• Schweitzer, Albert (1908). J. S. Bach. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel.
• Schweitzer, Albert (1935). J. S. Bach, Vol. 1 London: A. & C. Black.
• ISBN 978-3487416977
• Johann Sebastian Bach, Erster Band (Book I–IV). Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel
  .
• Novello & Co
  .
• Stauffer, George Boyer (1978). The Free Organ Preludes of Johann Sebastian Bach (thesis). Columbia University.
• Stauffer, George Boyer; May, Ernest, eds. (1986). J. S. Bach as Organist: His Instruments, Music and Performance Practices. Indiana University Press.
  ISBN 978-0253331816
  .
• Stinson, Russell (2006). The Reception of Bach's Organ Works from Mendelssohn to Brahms. Oxford University Press.
  ISBN 978-0199747030
  )
• Stinson, Russell (2012). J. S. Bach at His Royal Instrument: Essays on His Organ Works. US:
  ISBN 978-0199917235
• Williams, Peter F. (1980). The Organ Music of J. S. Bach, Volume 1: Preludes, Toccatas, Fantasias, Fugues, Sonatas, Concertos and Miscellaneous Pieces (BWV 525–598, 802–805 etc.) Cambridge University Press.
  ISBN 978-0521217231
  .
• Williams, Peter F. (July 1981). "BWV 565: a toccata in D minor for organ by J. S. Bach?" pp. 330–37 in Early Music Vol. 9, No. 3.
• ISBN 978-0521814164
  .
• ISBN 039304825X
• ISBN 978-3761815854
• ISBN 978-1890600037
• ISBN 978-0521199018

Further reading

• Albrecht, Timothy E. (1980). "Musical Rhetoric in J.S. Bach's Organ Toccata BWV 565" pp. 84–94 in Organ Yearbook Vol. 11 ^[ISBN missing]
• Dunning, Brian (September 28, 2021). "Skeptoid #799: On the Authorship of the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor: The most famous organ work in history has a surprising mystery – we're not really sure who composed it!". Skeptoid. – reviews speculation that J. S. Bach did not compose the work.
• Stauffer, George Boyer (1980). The Organ Preludes of Johann Sebastian Bach. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press.
  ISBN 978-0835711173

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to BWV 565.

Sheet music

• Free sheet music of original and Busoni piano arrangement from Cantorion.org – Accessed: 08:14, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

Audio recordings

• Free download of BWV 565 recorded by
  Walcker organ in Riga Cathedral
  , Latvia. Accessed: 08:14, 3 April 2016 (UTC)
• Toccata en fuga voor orgel BWV.565 in d kl.t. at
  Muziekweb
  website

Video recordings

• 4K Ultra HD video of the Toccata and Fugue BWV 565, performed on a Flentrop Organ by organist Rodney Gehrke for the Early Music ensemble Voices of Music. Accessed: 08:14, 3 April 2016 (UTC)
• Toccata and fugue in D minor at Netherlands Bach Society website (contains an introduction to the composition and a video of Leo van Doeselaar's 2013 performance of the work, released 2 May 2014)

Mixed media (sheet music and recordings)

• Bach, Johann Sebastian – Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, wikipiano.wikidot.com – Accessed 3 April 2016
• Sheet music and recordings (original, arrangements) of BWV 565, www.free-scores.com – Accessed 3 April 2016