Toccata in G minor
BWV 915 performed by Maude Gratton
Paushuize, Utrecht
Behind the music
Story
Story
Credits
Credits
The hidden logic of harmony
Bach experiments with the stylus phantasticus
What composer doesn’t dream of total freedom to put their soul and feelings into music? Bach’s predecessors, in any case, couldn’t get enough of the free and daring keyboard improvisations by composers from across the Alps, like Frescobaldi and Rossi. In their turn, Froberger, Buxtehude, Bruhns and other forerunners of Bach launched a trend that was labelled ‘stylus phantasticus’ by the music philosopher Athanasius Kircher, in 1650. Strong contrasts, free forms and grand gestures follow one another seamlessly – while everything in between is nicely organised in accordance with the hidden logic of harmony.
This legacy must have intrigued the young Bach, in any case sufficiently for him to venture on this stylus himself, even though his later music went off in a totally different direction. The Toccata in G minor begins and ends with great flair, with an enormous gesture that embraces nearly the whole keyboard. In between, Bach places four varied movements:
- a sarabande-like Adagio
- an Allegro with the annotations forte and piano, which requires an instrument with two manuals
- after a startling transition, another slow, lyrical movement, and
- a strict (maybe too strict?) four-part fugue on a rather awkward, repetitive theme… no simple matter to make this exciting.
Whereas the six other surviving toccatas by Bach crop up in many manuscripts – sometimes in dozens of them – we have only two copies of BWV 915, neither of which are in Bach’s hand. The most interesting is written by Bach’s pupil Johann Nicolaus Preller, who notated all sorts of performance instructions. Maybe these came straight from the master himself?
- BWV
- 915
- Title
- Toccata in G minor
- Instrument
- harpsichord
- Genre
- harpsichord works
- Special notes
- Date of origin: late Arnstadt/early Weimar period? Earliest source: mid-18th century.
Extra videos
Vocal texts
Original
Translation
Credits
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- Release date
- 23 October 2025
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- Recording date
- 9 December 2024
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- Location
- Paushuize, Utrecht
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- Harpsichord
- Maude Gratton
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- Instrument
- Jan Kalsbeek, naar Michael Mietke ca. 1700
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- Director and camera
- Gijs Besseling
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- Music recording
- Guido Tichelman, Pim van der Lee
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- Music recording, edit and mix
- Guido Tichelman
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- Assistant music recording
- Marloes Biermans
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- Camera
- Danny Noordanus, Luc Roes
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- Lights
- Gijs Besseling, Danny Noordanus, Luc Roes
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- Producer
- Lisanne Marlou de Kok
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