Toccata in D minor (BWV 565)

Johann Sebastian Bach · Level 5 (Advanced) · Baroque · Piano

The opening of the famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor for organ, attributed to Bach (some musicologists doubt he wrote it): a call with a mordent, played in octaves, a diminished seventh chord over a D pedal, then triplet runs bouncing from hand to hand up to the final cadence. Adapted here for piano: the pedal part goes to the left hand, and the fugue is not included. D minor, 4/4, 30 bars (about 2 minutes), complete score.

▶ Play this piece with the interactive score

How to practise it

• Listen first: the site plays it while the score scrolls.
• Wait mode: the score waits for you at every note, at your own pace.
• Tempo challenge: play in time, with a score and a map of the bars you got right.
• The slow passages (mordents, fermatas) are played freely, taking time over the rests; work at the triplet runs hands separately in Wait mode, then raise the tempo in steps. Hold the low bass notes for their full value: they stand in for the organ pedals. Practise each voice separately, then put them together slowly while listening to the counterpoint. One hand sometimes plays two voices: hold the long notes for their full value and let the main line sing louder than the accompaniment. Triplets and other tuplets must be perfectly even: count them aloud with the metronome.

More pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach

• Partita 4 (BWV 828) — movement 6
• Aus meines Herzens Grunde (Chorale 1) (BWV 269)
• Two-Part Invention No. 1 in C major (BWV 772)
• Prelude No. 1 in C major, Well-Tempered Clavier I (BWV 846)
• Two-Part Invention No. 13 in A minor (BWV 784)
• Two-Part Invention No. 8 in F major (BWV 779)
• Little Prelude in F major (BWV 928)
• Two-Part Invention No. 4 in D minor (BWV 775)

Source : Mutopia Project · Public Domain