Toccata & Fugue in D Minor

The opening flourish is one of the most iconic calls to attention in all organ music—but did BWV 565 start life as a work for organ? Is it, indeed, even by J.S. Bach? Scholarly opinion is divided. One strand suspects an original violin composition lurking beneath some of the figuration, while another reconciles any atypical features by ascribing the piece to Bach’s youth and the stylistic exuberance of a headstrong composer perhaps not yet 20 years old. Unlike the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor BWV 538 (known as the "Dorian"), the preamble of BWV 565 sidesteps counterpoint in favour of an improvisatory approach that puts a premium on pregnant pauses and bold rhetorical shots across the bow. After such freedom, the fugue, by definition, is more circumscribed; but even here the contrapuntal ebullience courts flamboyance with extended trills, echo effects, a solo pedal statement and, most conspicuously of all, a substantial concluding section bent on engineering a perfect firestorm of toccata-like display.