Toccatas (BWV 910-916) (Piano)

J S Bach Toccatas (BWV 910-916) (Piano)

This volume contains Johann Sebastian Bach’s seven manualiter keyboard works that have come down to us with the title of Toccata.  There is still disagreement as to whether they were intended for the harpsichord or the organ.  On the whole, however, the pieces have largely survived (at least in the early sources) in connection with repertoires of harpsichord music. On the other hand, several sources offer proof that performance on the organ was at least not out of the question, and in all cases it remains a viable option.

All of the pieces gathered in this volume are early works written between roughly 1705 and no later than 1714.  The surviving sources provide no firm evidence as to whether Bach intended to group some or all of them into a self-contained cycle.  Nonetheless, the term Toccata Prima in several early sources for BWV 913 suggests that he had such a scheme in mind.  Similarly, the claim in Bach’s obituary that he “left behind six toccatas for clavier” likewise implies that such a collection once existed, although nothing is known of its exact contents, sequence of works, or possible purpose.  All the eighteenth-century sources of these works hand them down separately rather than in a self-contained series.

- Urtext of the New Bach Edition

- Extensive preface (Ger/Eng), facsimiles, and appendix with embellished versions