A not so recent story has it that one of the most famous pieces of organ music, the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, usually ascribed to J.S. Bach may have been written by another composer. Part of the sound track of numerous old horror films, cartoons and generally associated in most peoples' minds with all things ghostly this composition probably wasn't written originally for the pipe organ either but more likely for solo violin. In music circles this assertion has definitely upset the Halloween apples but some evidence, mostly circumstantial, has been accumulating since late in the last century. To begin the manuscript copy of the Toccata has never been found and the earliest available version was published by someone with a reputation for signing other names to his own work. [Shag wonders what would be the advantage ... shouldn't this be the other way around?] A couple of music historians suggest that stylistically the Toccata doesn't make sense. "It's a little worrying when literally the first and last notes of a piece of music raise doubts," wrote Peter Williams in the Early Music journal back in 1981. His arguments began with the very name of the piece. He states that Bach's generation would have named this "Praeludium et fuga" or Prelude and fugue, not a Toccata. [Shag notes: Really? So where does that leave other compositions called Toccata and fugue in D minor ... for instance the "Dorian"BWV 538 ?. There are several others in different keys.]

Another comment printed in String Magazine Oct/2004 cites evidence of rule breaking including doubling of octaves and the curious minor cadence that ends the Toccata both not heard elsewhere in Bach's organ output. Usually a work in a minor key concludes with a major chord. There is some argument from the "pro" side that the Toccata was a product of a younger composer probably in his mid twenties. [It does seem less complex then the median within the "Art of Fugue" or the "Well Tempered Clavier". But the first prelude in C major from the WTC consists of simple arpeggiated chords forming a series of modulations beginning and ending in the tonic. This piece is also used to accompany Gounod's version of Ave Maria. Bach's style was often more complex than that of the early classical period which began in the middle of the eighteen century. But everything he wrote was not as introspective as the Art of Fugue. So some writers now believe the Toccata was a violin piece transcribed. It seems a little inconsistent to say this since so many "musicologists" already think the Toccata was too simple to be written by Bach anyway. "B" also wrote and transcribed for instruments, ie. the lute, considered too "plebian" by church authorities. Another point is that the use of a twelve note system as advertised in the WTC originates with folk idiom not the church. That subject might be the basis for another post.] Here's a final comment,

" If you know the piece you can just see it was written for the violin," says Don Franklin, a Pitt musicologist specializing in the composer. "It has idiomatic figuration for the violin." "Bach did a lot of transcription," says Franklin, also past president of the American Bach Society. The Toccata lends itself to this and can easily be played on the D string, crossing over to touch the G string. The opening of the Toccata does suggest an offering for a solo violin to drop down through its four strings.