Toccata in F major, BWV 540 - Johann Sebastian Bach | Secrets of Organ Playing Contest Week 47

This is my entry for the Secrets of Organ Playing Contest Week 47.

I'm playing JS Bach's monumental Toccata in F major, BWV 540. When I first started learning the organ, my dream was to be able to play this work. I was fascinated by the pedal solos and the continuous driving semiquavers throughout. I had to be very patient before I could even tackle such a piece. My, then, organ teacher started me off on the 8 short Preludes and Fugues (Bach/Krebs) and other shorter works by JS Bach. My first major Bach work was actually the Dorian Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 538 (not to be mistaken with the infamous BWV 565).

After I had survived a couple of rigorous years of practice (assisted with my piano background), I then decided to tackle the F major Toccata with the guidance of my teacher. It's an infurating piece to learn because you are really excited to make it sound good (and fast!) but you have to spend lots of time learning the notes carefully. Let's break down this monumental work into four sections:

1. Opening canon with two voices and tonic pedal point, pedal solo to finish.
2. Canon with two voices in the dominant key, voices inverted, pedal solo to finish.
3. Development of the theme with arpeggios and lots of semiquavers (along with the notorious "three" difficult episodes).
4. Extended coda in the dominant key before resolving to F major.

Whilst this is not a perfect performance, I'm quite happy with the result. I do hope you enjoy listening to this work along with the score (as it's in the public domain). It was a great relief when I finished playing it!

Yours truly,
@contrabourdon

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