Toccata in F-sharp minor BWV 910

Description

The seven works BWV 910-916 are grouped together as toccatas for keyboard without pedals, and they come from a relatively early stage of Bach's career. This one is the only one of the seven in F-sharp minor. A toccata sets improvisatory runs against strict, fugal sections, and in these pieces you can sense what the young Bach took from traditions such as the North German organ school.

It is in F-sharp minor and in several sections: an opening of free runs, a slow section, and passages where voices enter fugally, with sections in 4/4, 3/2 and 6/8 in the data. The 3/2 section works with a chromatically descending subject, and the close comes in a dance-like motion in 6/8. It runs to about thirteen minutes (790 seconds) with 4,147 notes, and its range, C2 to B5, fits on a 61-key keyboard.

It is rated advanced. Because metre and character change from section to section, how to set the tempo relationships between them, and how to make the whole sound like one piece, are the main challenges. In a minor key with three sharps and many accidentals, first find the joins between the sections in the score view, then lower the playback speed and practise each section on its own. Isolating one section at a time with an A-B loop and sorting out the voices with the hand colours, then joining finished sections together, gives you a clear path through it.

Keyboard works with an improvisatory character, alternating between virtuosic passages and contrapuntal sections.