History
As with most Bach organ works, no autograph manuscript of BWV 565 survives. The only near-contemporary source is an undated copy by Johannes Ringk, a pupil of Johann Peter Kellner. Several compositions by him survive, and he is also notable today for his copies of numerous keyboard works by Georg Böhm, Johann Pachelbel, Johann Heinrich Buttstett, Dieterich Buxtehude, and other important masters. The title of the piece is given in Ringk's manuscript as Toccata Con Fuga. It is most probably a later addition, similar to the title of Toccata, Adagio and Fugue, BWV 564, because in the Baroque era such organ pieces would most commonly be called simply Prelude (Praeludium, etc.) or Prelude and Fugue. Ringk's copy abounds in Italian tempo markings, fermatas (a characteristic feature of Ringk's copies) and staccato dots, all very unusual features for pre–1740 German music. All later manuscript copies that are known today originate directly or indirectly with Ringk's.
BWV 565 exhibits a typical simplified north German structure with a free opening (Toccata), a fugal section (Fugue), and a short free closing section. The connection to the north German organ school was noted early by Bach biographer Philipp Spitta in 1873. However, the numerous recitative stretches are rarely found in the works of northern composers and may have been inspired by Johann Heinrich Buttstett, whose few surviving free works, particularly his Prelude and Capriccio in D minor, exhibit similar features. A passage in the fugue of BWV 565 is an exact copy of one Johann Pachelbel's D minor fantasias, and the first half of the subject is taken from Pachelbel as well. It was common practice at the time to create fugues on other composers' themes, and a number of such pieces by Bach are known (BWV 574, 579, 950, etc.); moreover, the bass pattern of the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582, is borrowed from André Raison's organ passacaglia.
The work was first published by Breitkopf & Härtel in late 1833 as part of a collection of Bach's organ works. The edition was conceived and partly prepared by Felix Mendelssohn, who had BWV 565 in his repertoire already by 1830. Mendelssohn's opinion of the piece, expressed in one of his letters, was that it was "at the same time learned and something for the [common] people." The first major public performance was also by Mendelssohn, on 6 August 1840 in Leipzig. The concert was very well received by the critics, among them Robert Schumann. Later in the 19th century, Franz Liszt adopted the piece into his organ repertoire, and a piano transcription was made by Liszt's pupil Carl Tausig, which gained substantial fame. Another popular transcription was completed in 1899 by Ferruccio Busoni. In the 20th century, an orchestral version of the piece, created by Leopold Stokowski, popularized the work further when it was included in Walt Disney's film Fantasia, released in 1940.
The work's famous opening drew attention and praise already from Schumann, who, however, admired it as an example of Bach's sense of humor. In the 20th century the work was generally viewed very differently, as a bold and dramatic piece. Musicologist Hermann Keller, writing in 1948, described the opening bars' unison passages as "descending like a lightning flash, the long roll of thunder of the broken chords of the full organ, and the stormy undulation of the triplets." A similar view has been expressed by noted Bach scholar and former director of Bach-Archiv Leipzig, Hans-Joachim Schulze:
Here is elemental and unbounded power, in impatiently ascending and descending runs and rolling masses of chords, that only with difficulty abates sufficiently to give place to the logic and balance of the Fugue. With the reprise of the initial Toccata, the dramatic idea reaches its culmunation amidst flying scales and with an ending of great sonority.
Writing in 2005, organist and Bach scholar Hans Fagius commented that while the authorship issue may remain unresolved, the enduring popularity of the work is not difficult to understand, since there is "a fantastic drive and energy to the piece that simply make it irresistible."
Attribution
Some of the earliest publications to raise the authorship question were articles by Walter Emery (1966) and Friedrich Blume (1965), and Roger Bullivant's book Fugue (1971). Ten years after Bullivant's volume, a paper by musicologist Peter Williams was published, dealing specifically with BWV 565 and outlining a number of stylistic problems present in the piece. These included, but were not limited to, the following, all either unique or extremely rare for organ music of the period the toccata is allegedly from:
In 1998 the issue was explored in a book-length study by the musicologist Rolf-Dietrich Claus. In 2006, a statistical analysis supported the validity of the authorship question concerning the fugue of BWV 565. Several theories concerning the authorship of the work were put forward by scholars. For example, the piece may have been created by another composer who must have been born in the beginning of the 18th century, since details of style (such as triadic harmony, spread chords, and the use of solo pedal) may indicate post–1730, or even post–1750 idioms. In 1982, scholar David Humphreys suggested that such a composer could come from the circle of Ringk's teacher Johann Peter Kellner (1705–1772), who had close ties with the Bach family.
- Parallel octaves throughout the opening of the toccata
- True subdominant answers in the fugue
- A pedal statement of the subject, unaccompanied by other voices (also in Bullivant, and mentioned elsewhere)
- Primitive harmonies throughout the piece, with countersubjects in the fugue frequently moving through thirds and sixths only
- Conclusion of the piece on a minor plagal cadence (also in Bullivant)
In 1998 the issue was explored in a book-length study by the musicologist Rolf-Dietrich Claus. In 2006, a statistical analysis supported the validity of the authorship question concerning the fugue of BWV 565. Several theories concerning the authorship of the work were put forward by scholars. For example, the piece may have been created by another composer who must have been born in the beginning of the 18th century, since details of style (such as triadic harmony, spread chords, and the use of solo pedal) may indicate post–1730, or even post–1750 idioms. In 1982, scholar David Humphreys suggested that such a composer could come from the circle of Ringk's teacher Johann Peter Kellner (1705–1772), who had close ties with the Bach family.
Another theory, first put forward by Williams in 1981, suggests that BWV 565 may have been a transcription of a lost solo violin piece. Parallel octaves and the preponderance of thirds and sixths may be explained by a transcriber's attempt to fill in harmony which, if preserved as is, would be inadequately thin on a pipe organ. This is corroborated by the fact that the subject of the fugue, and certain passages (such as bars 12–15), are evidently inspired by string music. Bach is known to have transcribed solo violin works for organ at least twice. Williams put this theory into practice by writing a reconstruction of the conjectured original violin work, which has been performed (by violinists Jaap Schröder and Simon Standage), and published. The violinist Andrew Manze subsequently produced his own reconstruction, also in A minor, which he has performed and recorded. Another violin version was created by scholar Bruce Fox-Lefriche in 2004, and other string instruments have been suggested for the original piece as well, e.g. a five string cello — a possibility explored in a 2000 article by Mark Argent.
Among the numerous examples of scholars referring to the work as one of doubtful attribution are the 1997 Cambridge Companion to Bach, edited by scholar and performer John Butt, as well as recent monographs on Bach's music by harpsichordist and musicologist David Schulenberg and Richard Douglas Jones. However, the designation of BWV 565 as a work of doubtful attribution is not supported by the renowned Bach scholar Christoph Wolff. Writing about BWV 565 in his seminal Bach biography, Johann Sebastian Bach — The Learned Musician, he does not address most of the specific problems of the piece, instead maintaining that any and all problematic passages are explained by the fact that BWV 565 must be an early work. The parallel octaves, Wolff writes, must be explained by the deficiencies of Bach's Arnstadt organ, which the composer sought to rectify.
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