Toccata & Fugue in D minor

[warrior1]

Awww Bach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FXoyr_FyFw

[Callalily]

1. That is one of my

favorite fugues!

[KitchenWitch]

2. I am guessing you like fugues!

:P

[mainegreen]

3. awesomeness

[Aristus]

4. That is THE go-to piece for depicting Gothic evil.

Nothing else even comes close.

[sarge43]

10. James Mason as Capt Nemo, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea - yes.

On the other, I've always imagined it was the background score for Creation followed by "Sheep May Safely Graze" as the blessing.

[Aristus]

21. I did a stage version of "The Cask of Amontillado" a number of years ago.

Tocatta in Dminor was the intro music.


Here's me as Montresor:

[sarge43]

22. Excellent choice for background music to that story. n/t

[MrSlayer]

5. Bach is awesome.

The Heavy Metal of his time.

[kineneb]

6. I want to learn to play it

when my life is a bit more normal... I have this small double-manual pipe organ in my studio, you see...

[laconicsax]

7. You know, it isn't certain that Bach actually wrote it.

[Bear down under]

12. Maybe

The D minor toccata and fugue is always dated around 1703 - 1707, which would mean Bach was in his late teens when he wrote it; he was born in 1685. So it is a bit much to expect that it would be as original or as finely finished as his more mature works -- and if it isn't by Bach, nobody has ever been able to make a convincing suggestion as to who actually wrote it.
There is a discussion of the matter here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toccata_and_Fugue_in_D_minor

But whether by Bach or no, it is wonderful, wonderful music.

It's nice to hear it played on the Sydney Town Hall organ too. We Sydneysiders are rather proud of the instrument, which when it was built in 1886-89 was the largest in the world. http://www.ohta.org.au/confs/Sydney/SYDNEYTOWNHALL.html

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Yeah, and here's another deservedly popular chestnut

only not by Bach, but by the French organist Charles-Marie Widor, the Toccata from his Fifth Symphony.

My stepfather was an organist, and this was his favorite showpiece. It's also the customary postlude at my church on Easter Sunday. You can see why. It sounds very celebratory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKejfYzB3ak&feature=related

[yellowdogintexas]

24. I love this piece! It was our offertory on Easter Sunday

our organist has a thing for this piece and we get to hear it several times a year, sometimes as offertory and sometimes as recessional music; I love it. We have a pretty good organ and great acoustics and he is not shy with the sound at all.

[tjwmason]

9. It's all about the fugue.

I have to say that I am underwhelmed by the toccata, to my mind these are all about flash and the French 20th century managed to do flash far better (mostly because they had instruments a couple of times larger). For fugues, however, Bach still hasn't been beaten...nobody even comes close - they're all about internal complexity, which is what the big J.S.B. had in spade.

Finally, anybody who even contemplates playing the Toscanini orchestration should be hanged, drawn and quartered - this piece is one of the glories of the Baroque era, to turn it into a piece of Romantic era slush is a crime against humanity.

[Richardo]

11. "Romantic slush"

:rofl:


"I don't care what they say......I don't care what he does.....nothing can make me say.......I like Beethoven symphonies...." - Peter Schickele, "PDQ Bach On The Air": 'What's Happening in Home Economics (Beethoven's Revenge)'

[B3Nut]

13. double-U double-O Efff.....Hoople!

Someone needs to do a streaming Net station for PDQ and call it WOOF. It would seriously rock!

Methinks the Dm T&F is becoming the classical organ world's Freebird...there's so much stupendous music in the repertoire. The symphonies of Vierne and Widor, Franck's Trois Chorales...

Oh, and the French still improvise like nobody else. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Notre Dame titulaire Olivier Latry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSxVO3EoCRM

Also search YouTube for Daniel Roth at St. Sulpice. AWESOME stuff...the Cavaille-Coll at St. Sulpice is the most glorious instrument ever fashioned by human hands, IMHO.

Todd in Cheesecurdistan

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. I find it interesting that organists are the only classical musicians who

improvise on a regular basis. I've noticed over the years that when the processional or recessional hymn is too short for the procession at hand, they just throw in a bit of improvisation to bridge the verses.

The Sage Chapel choir at Cornell University once played an April Fool's joke on their conductor/organist. Someone realized that a) There was a door in the back of the choir stalls that led to the basement and b) the choir was large enough and the aisle of the chapel short enough so that in procession, it was longer than the aisle. One year, April Fool's Day fell on a Sunday, and so the choir decided to "recycle" itself. As soon as each person got to the choir loft, he or she slipped out the back door, ran through the basement, and rejoined the end of the procession. They got the whole choir through twice before having mercy on the organist, who was improvising like crazy and looking increasingly distressed.

Amazing improvisation by Latry, by the way. Ten minutes!

[B3Nut]

19. Yes...sometimes improvisations end up being transcribed

and end up in the repertoire. Charles Tournemire was a French legend at improv, and 3 of his improvisations were recorded on 78's. Composer and organist Maurice Durufle transcribed them, and many organists perform and record them. His improvisation on Victimae Paschali Laudes is one of the most popular, it's stunning.

I hope someone pulls a Durufle and transcribes some of Latry's improvisations...I'd love to see the one I posted end up in concerts some day. I'm not nearly good enough to pull that off, being a self-taught rock musician who's currently fumbling through one of Vierne's easier works on a Hammond... ;)

There's a link on that YouTube page to Latry playing the opening chant from the same Mass he improvised the Introit to, once I saw that I realized where the theme for the improv came from, and how brilliantly he was working off it. Just....wow. What amazing music!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

20. As long as that improvisation is on video

someone (not I, certainly--I dropped out of ear training class) could transcribe it.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

25. Yes classical organists do improvise.

And you know what they do when they get bored? They go into jazz.

Jean-Luc Ponty got the Grand Prix (Grand Prize) at the Paris Conservatory for being the outstanding student. He got bored and started hanging out with George Duke, Frank Zappa and Stephane Grapelli, and went into jazz.

Jazz and classical are the only two complex forms of music.

Peter Schickele couldn't make a living writing serious classical music. He graduated from Juilliard. So he invented PDQ Bach and made a lot of people laugh, and he made a lot of money, and had fun too.


I've seen Marie-Madeleine Durufle in concert. Durufle's widow.


And speaking of the French Organ Gods, here is what Max Reger, one of them, said to a critic:

"I am in the smallest room in the house. Your review is before me, and soon it will be behind me."

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[tjwmason]

26. It is an interesting point

I'd love to go to an old-style French organ-Mass - these used to be the norm (with varying standards, of course) across France, there would be a choir which would sing the plainchant but this leaves large gaps in the service whilst the clergy are faffing around and the organist would just sit and improvise. Cycles such as L'Orgue Mystique by Charles Tournemire were sets of short pieces to be played by organists who couldn't improvise - with about 5 different pieces for each Sunday of the year to be played at different points.

Somewhere on the web there's a site dedicated to the famous organ at S. Sulpice, it has some videos (with pretty bad audio, it has to be admitted) of the organist improvising - it's pretty amazing to watch.

[B3Nut]

30. A site with some discs I want to pick up is

www.pipeorgancds.com - there are surround Super Audio CD recordings among others, they did the Widor Mass in surround (and it looks like it's back in stock...yay!) and a surround recording of the Vierne Mass is about to be released, both recorded at St. Sulpice with Daniel Roth (he the MAN! :D ) at the Grand-Orgue, and guest organists at the Orgue du Choeur (choir organ), along with two choirs. Me want. :)

The SACD discs play on regular CD players, but you'll need a SACD player (many universal DVD players play SACD, I got a closeout Onkyo player for $80) for bonus content and of course the hi-res surround audio. The discs are pricey, but given the small production runs and the costs of pulling this sort of thing off, not to mention the incredible calibre of art represented, it's not unreasonable.

There's also a SACD of Daniel Roth at the abbey church of St. Ouen in Rouen...I want that too, he does Vierne's "Cathedrales" and Messiaen's "Apparition L'Eglise Eternelle"...profound music. Cavaille-Coll organs rule... :D

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. Did you see my post above with the Widor Toccata?

I like that video because it shows the organist's feet in action.

But this is a good rendition, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgT6AB93DbQ&feature=related

[tjwmason]

27. The Widor is gorgeous

I can't watch the video as I'm at work - I also love the first movement from the same symphony.

It is incredible to watch an organist play, especially when the feet are visible too.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

28. I always wondered about this....

If an organist has to read three lines of music, (left hand, right hand, and pedals)
wouldn't they need three eyes???

I'm a pianist so I don't know the answer. :shrug:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

29. No, but I can't imagine the coordination involved

As I understand, the right hand plays the soprano, the left hand plays the alto and tenor, and the feet play the bass.

[Taverner]

16. I always wished Wendy Carlos would have done a Switched-on version

Woulda been cool - Fugue on a Moog!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. For some REAL fancy footwork try this piece:

Bach's "Gigue Fugue"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjTKotxfwXQ&feature=related

As you may have guessed, "gigue" is the source of the English word "jig."

[CaliforniaPeggy]

18. Oh God, I am transported!

This is such glorious music!

Damn, just.......damn!

Thank you for posting it today!

:woohoo:

[MissMillie]

23. Is it time for Olbermann's Worst Persons in the World already?

:hi:

[B3Nut]

31. I hate it when he uses that as the intro

mainly because his copy of the piece is WAY sharp, almost a whole step (so it sounds close to E minor!) Some early organs are in different tunings, but usually it's a flatter tuning (A=415Hz versus the modern A=440Hz standard.) I think I have heard one organ that was in a much sharper tuning, but having perfect pitch it drives me bananas to hear. :)

But I don't have cable, so I almost never hear it (or get to see KO...)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

32. Spoken like a true organist

Before my stepfather got Alzheimers, he and his organist friends used to sit around and talk like that.