Dorian

[ardcarp]

I hoiked out my copy of the so-called Dorian Toccata and Fugue and gave it a whirl in remembrance of the Bermudan victims.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRY7zrMGCi8

(That's not me playing...I can manage about two-thirds that speed these days!)

[Serial_Apologist]

Oddly enough, although Bach's was the most commonly played organ music in my days of school chapel and church attendance, I've never come across that particular work. JS Bach was one of those composers who churned out more that it seems an average lifetime of music appreciation can take in. The quantities are just staggering. Chopin is another.

[Padraig]

I

[Serial_Apologist]

I

You?

[Padraig]

You?

I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you - Nobody - Too?

[vinteuil]

I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you - Nobody - Too?

Then there's a pair of us!
Dont tell! they'd advertise - you know!

How dreary - to be - Somebody!
How public - like a Frog -
To tell one's name - the livelong June -
To an admiring Bog!

.

[Dave2002]

I hoiked out my copy of the so-called Dorian Toccata and Fugue and gave it a whirl in remembrance of the Bermudan victims.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRY7zrMGCi8

(That's not me playing...I can manage about two-thirds that speed these days!)

Not noticed this before - but is it normal to not have a key signature? D minor would be indicated by a one flat key signature, but perhaps it wasn't the custom of composers such as Bach to bother where many other accidentals arise during the whole piece. I haven't seen a manuscript, but it looks as though most copies of this piece are written without an initial key signature - checked with IMSLP versions, for example.

Is this the case for other pieces by Bach also? Maybe the clue is in the name - Dorian!

https://www.pianoscales.org/dorian.html

[ardcarp]

Bach usually used 'complete' key signatures. However it was quite common practice for Baroque composers to write, for instance. in G minor with only one flat in the key sig, the other being put in as an accidental.

[Serial_Apologist]

Bach usually used 'complete' key signatures. However it was quite common practice for Baroque composers to write, for instance. in G minor with only one flat in the key sig, the other being put in as an accidental.

I never knew that!!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I never knew that!!

Nor did I. Can you give a couple of examples, please, ardy.

[ardcarp]

I'll have a rummage around tomorrow. The 'famous' Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 (which doesn't exist in Bach's hand and has therefore been argued over by some) has the usual B flat in the key sig.

[Pulcinella]

Another unusual feature of the toccata, according to Wiki:

Bach even notates manual changes for the organist, an unusual practice in the day as well as in Bach's organ output.

[ardcarp]

Biber often missed out a flat in the key sig (Missa Sancti Henrici [?] speaking from memory here.) It was common in late renaissance early Baroque...and here I have to hand Grandi's O Porta Caeli andand Gabrieli's Omnes Gentes. A really early example is Pygott's Quid Petis O Fili, which I'm about to sing this w/e...so have to rush! More examples to follow when I fall over them.....

[Bryn]

Another unusual feature of the toccata, according to Wiki:

Bach even notates manual changes for the organist, an unusual practice in the day as well as in Bach's organ output.

The toccata concerned being the 'Dorian', rather than BWV 565.

[Pulcinella]

The toccata concerned being the 'Dorian', rather than BWV 565.

Indeed.
I should have been more specific, given that we had strayed slightly!