Exploring the unknown of BWV 565, Part 5

Michael Gailit graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with both performance and pedagogy diplomas in organ as well as in piano. Teaching piano at this institute since 1980, he has also conducted the organ studio at the Musik und Kunst Universität in Vienna since 1995. As church organist he served at Saint Augustine’s Church, 1979–2008; in 2011 he was appointed organist at the Jesuit Church (Old University Church).

Both in his performance and teaching repertoire, Gailit includes all style areas on the basis of their individual performance practices. He has toured with solo recitals on both instruments in Europe as well as in North America and appeared with leading orchestras and renowned conductors. Recordings, masterclasses, invitations to juries, musicological publications, editing sheet music, compositions, arrangements, supporting the piano-organ duo repertoire, commissioned works, first performances, and finally occasional trips into the theatre and silent movie repertoire should be noted.

Particular attention was received in 1989 for the first performance of the complete piano and organ works of Julius Reubke (1834–1858), the performance of the complete organ works of Franz Schmidt (1874–1939) the same year, as well as in September 2005 a series of six recitals with the trio sonatas of Johann Sebastian Bach, the organ sonatas of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and the organ symphonies of Louis Vierne. Currently Gailit is working on a book, The Enigma BWV 565, a study elucidating new answers and new questions.

Editor’s note: Part 1 of this series appeared in the June 2021 issue of The Diapason, pages 18–19; part 2 appeared in the July 2021 issue, pages 12–14; part 3 appeared in the December 2021 issue, pages 16–18; part 4 appeared in the August 2022 issue, pages 15–17; part 5 appeared in the September 2022 issue, pages 19–21.

Before we introduce the most promising candidate for the vacant position of the composer of BWV 565, the author would like to mention two of his recent discoveries.¹ We have observed that the ending of the toccata section contains the second phrase of the opening in the pedal.² It was a surprise to find that the section also contains the first phrase! Pitch notation reveals that, from the second half of measure 27 onward, the nine notes of the top voice are the nucleus, just in a different order and with larger note values (Example 79).

The second discovery concerns the upper voice of measure 98. After a chain of eighth notes with ties, not only is the E-flat repeated, but also its accidental (Example 80). Until now, this has always been interpreted as a missing tie, and editors customarily replaced the two eighth notes by a quarter note. However, it does not seem conclusive that the copyist both forgot the tie and, against custom, repeated the accidental. Changing the first E-flat to E-natural results in a complete chromatic fourth moving parallel with the lower voice (Example 81). In addition, the natural of the preceding note F in the manuscript shows how easily a clumsy natural can be misread as a flat.

Leaving aside these two recent motivic discoveries and returning now to our quest for the “Unknown of BWV 565,” let us consider a statement by Rolf Dietrich Claus:

We owe the only reference to Johann Sebastian Bach as the author of BWV 565 to [the manuscript copy of] Johannes Ringk. The only other evidence for Bach’s authorship is the “authentication by tradition” and the argument: “who else could it have been?” Since the latter two do not contribute to a factual assessment of the question of authenticity, they remain undiscussed here.³

This statement of Rolf Dietrich Claus has been the author’s primary motivation to investigate the case of BWV 565. There are only two possibilities regarding the creator. Either we already know or we do not know the composer. The latter is hardly imaginable although there are composers who sadly died early and left only one major piece to posterity. Looking for a known composer, a candidate takes the stage, whose keyboard works show an inventive approach in general and convincing similarities to BWV 565 in particular.

The candidate

The Unknown now becomes a person. Our suspect surpassed his father in fame beyond his lifetime as a keyboard virtuoso, a renowned teacher, a prolific composer, an avid publisher of his own works, and an esteemed chamber musician to Frederick II. He had a tremendous influence on Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), who was to become the father of the Viennese Classical style. We are talking of course about Johann Sebastian Bach’s second oldest son, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788). Hardly any information has survived about the relationship between C. P. E. Bach and Haydn other than this telling story:

In a happy hour, in which his cash register allowed him a small extra expenditure, he visited one of those booksellers whose treasures he had so often only been able to admire in the display windows. We will not deny ourselves the assumption that he remembered his former neighbor Binz and directed his steps to his vault at the Stephan Cemetery. At his request to present him with the best known piano works of the moment, the bookseller took out a booklet of sonatas by C. Ph. Emanuel Bach and praised them so forcefully that Haydn paid without further ado, packed up the booklet, and hurried towards his attic. “I could not get away from my piano until I had played through the sonatas.”⁴

At the internet website cpebach.org, the Packard Humanities Institute of Los Altos, California, recently published all of the compositions of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in an excellent urtext edition accompanied by a critical report. Since we know the year of completion or publication of all of the more than 150 keyboard sonatas, we are able to observe and follow the compositional development of the composer.

Placed among Johann Sebastian’s keyboard works, the visual impression of BWV 565 alone is jarringly different. The opposite is true with Carl Philipp’s late keyboard works. Among them, BWV 565 gives the impression of ready-made merchandise rather than provocative haute couture. The esteemed reader is invited to browse through the nearly 800 pages of keyboard solo sonatas. It is a truly unique experience. For this article, only the most relevant examples were selected. Apart from textures similar to those in BWV 565, the guideline for the search was to look for opening themes fulfilling these three conditions:

• beginning on the dominant note;

• descent of five scale steps to the tonic note;

• ending on the mordent motive with the leading tone as the lower neighbor note.

Selected examples

Carl Philipp’s first keyboard sonata provides an appropriate example to get started. Indebted to the Baroque style with its imitation work in general and to his father’s Invention in F Major, BWV 779, this piece contains quite a few motives also present in BWV 565. The descending tetrachord and its circolo mezzo⁵ variant is reworked with genuine keyboard figurations. In measures 10 and 11, the sequences twice cite all nine notes of the nucleus of BWV 565, which also provides the substance for the opening of the second movement (Example 82).

On the other hand, in Johann Sebastian’s keyboard music, organ or harpsichord, a theme of five descending scale steps plus a closing mordent motive simply does not exist at all, with the single exception of a theme in the Pastorale in F Major, BWV 590 (Example 83).

The step-wise descending fifth can be encountered in Carl Philipp’s keyboard music numerous times and in many variations, just as we also encounter many unison passages, figurations with arpeggio chords, and sections with alternately played hands. From the very first one, all sonata movements bear tempo designations, and some movements several. The Sonata in B Minor, Wq 49/6,⁶ third movement, reworks a theme very similar to the BWV 565 theme. An ornamented version of its first movement resembles the beginning of BWV 565 as well, as does the first movement of the Sonata in C Minor, Wq 50/6, of 1759. The Fantasia in D Minor, Wq 114/7, shares four beats with the identical figuration in BWV 565 (Example 84).

The Sonata in A Minor, Wq 57/2, first movement, places the main idea in three different octave positions. The third movement, “Allegro di molto,” varies the motive in three descending phrases (Example 85).

Carl Philipp’s Rondo in C Major, Wq 56/1, fills sections with triad figurations in unison, strongly resembling those in measures 8 through 10 of BWV 565. The given dynamics in the Rondo passage inspires one to vary registrations and manual changes in the toccata (Example 86).

The closing of the Fantasy in F Major, Wq 59/5, resembles the beginning of BWV 565 in more than one section. The main motive appears in three different octave positions,⁷ followed by ascending broken chords, a unison passage, and a chord phrase in figured-bass style. The dominant-seventh chord on E-flat jumps out of the composer’s surprise box. Serving as a subdominant and pivot, it sits in the exact midpoint of the chord phrase (Example 87).

The arpeggios from the Rondo in A Minor, Wq 56/5, show the practice of repeating each harmony twice (Example 88).

In his late sonata movements Carl Philipp Emanuel also developed a certain predilection for chord tremolos, such as in the left hand of the passage from Sonata in B-flat Major, Wq 59/3, a playing style similar to the trill cadenza in BWV 565 on the diminished-seventh chord in measures 22 through 27 (Example 89).

We have no proof as to how Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was connected with Toccata and Fugue ex d, BWV 565. The examples show, however, that there must have been some connection. At any rate, BWV 565 is still a Bach’s toccata, but the question “Who else could it have been?” strongly suggests the answer is Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Certainly, without further evidence, the field remains open for speculation. Do the similarities between BWV 565 and Carl Philipp’s keyboard pieces prove him as the innovative composer of the post-Baroque revolutionary organ piece? Or do they prove him as an avid plagiarizer? Carl Philipp burned his own works, which he did not want distributed, on a large scale in 1786.⁸ Did one of his students secretly copy the piece before?

BWV 565 requires a bottom C-sharp in measure 2, rarely found in organs of Johann Sebastian Bach’s time. This fact has caused some speculation about instruments possibly connected to BWV 565. Related to this question, two organs remain unnoticed thus far. They were commissioned in 1755 and 1776 by the youngest sister of Frederick II, princess Anna Amalia of Prussia (1723–1787). Both were built with full compasses on all manuals and pedal. The first one still exists and is now located in the Kirche Zur frohen Botschaft (Church of the Good News) in Berlin-Karlshorst. Kristian Wegscheider and his team completed a careful restoration of this sonorous instrument in 2010. It is hard to describe how thrilling BWV 565 sounds on this organ. The missing bottom C-sharp, however, did not stop organists from playing the piece in concert. According to reviews in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, BWV 565 was played on the organ at Saint Mary’s Church in Berlin in 18179 and 1829,10 the very first evidence of public performances—and on an instrument without a bottom C-sharp.

The new status

The quest needs to continue. The efforts of libraries and other institutions are most helpful to make sources digitally available worldwide.

• Motivic-thematic work. Far more significant than both questions of authorship and date of composition is the undeniable fact that BWV 565 is a motivic-thematic work. Until now, the development of this technique had been attributed to Joseph Haydn (1732–1809). BWV 565 is lifted now to the unique status of being the very first significant composition in music history using this technique.

• Post-Baroque revolution. The author introduced this term to compensate for a lacking general designation of the time period between the Baroque and the Viennese Classical periods. BWV 565 shows a significant number of essential features of this style.

• Cantata BWV 202. Due to divergent handwriting in comparable sources, the date of 1730, shown on the title page of the cantata, cannot be used conclusively.

• Johannes Ringk. From eighteen manuscript sources marked with the name of Ringk as the scribe, a total of eight manuscripts show conformity with the signature font and other features. This body truly represents the scribe Johannes Ringk. The remaining ten manuscripts, including that of BWV 565, have a number of congruences among themselves as well, but none of them in use by Ringk. It can be said securely that the scribe of the earliest source of BWV 565 was definitely not Johannes Ringk.

• Johann Sebastian Bach. Internal evidence suggests that the question “Who else?” turns naturally to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Adolf Berhard Marx (1795–1866), the leading music theorist of his time, published BWV 565 under Johann Sebastian Bach’s name with Breitkopf & Härtel in 1833. He mentioned his doubts about authenticity, however, in the Berlin music journal Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung several times. Subsequently, Friedrich Griepenkerl (1782–1849) opened a wordy battle in this journal. His edition of Bach’s organ works with Edition Peters in 1845 claimed to be based on authentic sources. Regardless of this vivid dispute, both Marx and Griepenkerl had the same goal—to save a great piece for posterity that would have otherwise been lost forever. It was Griepenkerl who said:

In addition, I do not a have a bad conscience about including an inauthentic piece. One stroke through it, and the matter is settled. The buyer loses nothing, but gains another good piece.¹¹

Marx had obviously discovered the true nature of BWV 565:

My doubt is not based on documents or their lack, but on the content of the work, which from the first to the last note does not seem to me to be written in the spirit, according to Bach’s artistic principle or system, but rather to bear the marks of the attenuated post-Bach’s period. I would not be at a loss to defend this view at length if the patience of the readers and the space of a newspaper did not impose considerations. Whoever is familiar with the many discussions of Bach in my works . . . will in any case not need any further proof. Or, if it is desired, I will give it occasionally.¹²

Marx was never asked for proof. Nothing stopped BWV 565 from starting its world career under the name of Johann Sebastian Bach. Unraveling the true nature of the composition indeed required an undue amount of time and space. The author is grateful to The Diapason and its editors for patience and enthusiasm in publishing this survey.

Notes

1. Pianist-musicologist Dr. John Strauss of Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, was of invaluable help in providing dedicated advice and assistance to the author in the completion of this text.

2. Michael Gailit, “Exploring the unknown of BWV 565, Part 2” The Diapason, July 2021, pages 12–14, Example 26.

3. Rolf Dietrich Claus, Zur Echtheit von Toccata und Fuge d-Moll BWV 565, second edition (Köln-Rheinkassel: Dohr, 1998), 11.

4. Carl Ferdinand Pohl, Joseph Haydn (Berlin, A. Sacco Nachfolger 1875), 131.

5. Half circle in Italian; term for a four-note figuration following the form of a half circle in stepwise motion.

6. The code Wq refers to the catalogue of works of C. P. E. Bach by the Belgian music bibliographer Afred Wotquenne (1867–1939), which was largely based on the work of the organist Johann Jacob Heinrich Westphal (1756–1825), a friend and contemporary of Carl Philipp.

7. Notated as seven 32nd notes on a quarter beat, the correct notation would be septuplets of 16th notes.

8. Siegbert Rampe, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach und seine Zeit (Laaber: Laaber 2014), 465.

9. Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, vol. 19, September 17, 1817 (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel), 655.

10. Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, vol. 6, May 23, 1829, 456.

11. Quoted from Claus, p. 11.

12. Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, vol. 50, March 8, 1848, 159–160.

Michael Gailit graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with both performance and pedagogy diplomas in organ as well as in piano. Teaching piano at this institute since 1980, he has also conducted the organ studio at the Musik und Kunst Universität in Vienna since 1995. As church organist he served at Saint Augustine’s Church, 1979–2008; in 2011 he was appointed organist at the Jesuit Church (Old University Church).

Both in his performance and teaching repertoire, Gailit includes all style areas on the basis of their individual performance practices. He toured with solo recitals on both instruments in Europe as well as in North America and appeared with leading orchestras and renowned conductors. Recordings, masterclasses, invitations to juries, musicological publications, editing sheet music, compositions, arrangements, supporting the piano-organ duo repertoire, commissioned works, first performances, and finally occasional trips into the theatre and silent movie repertoire should be noted.

Particular attention was received in 1989 for the first performance of the complete piano and organ works of Julius Reubke (1834–1858), the performance of the complete organ works of Franz Schmidt (1874–1939) the same year, as well as in September 2005 a series of six recitals with the trio sonatas of Johann Sebastian Bach, the organ sonatas of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and the organ symphonies of Louis Vierne. Currently Gailit is working on a book, The Enigma BWV 565, a study elucidating new answers and new questions.

Editor’s note: Part 1 of this series appeared in the June 2021 issue of The Diapason, pages 18–19; part 2 appeared in the July 2021 issue, pages 12–14; part 3 appeared in the December 2021 issue, pages 16–18.

Part 4 completes the note-by-note investigation of Toccata con Fuga ex d, BWV 565, of Johann Sebastian Bach.¹ After initial observations, the author set the goal of tracing and describing motivic processes throughout the piece, not foreseeing the dimensions of the project.

This survey ended in part 3 with the entry of the fugue theme in measures 70 through 72. Probably intended, both the midpoint of the fugue entry in these measures as well as the midpoint of all 143 measures converge on the same third beat of measure 71.

From beat 3 of measure 72, a bridge of four beats opens the longest interlude that occupies the next fourteen measures. With measure 72 in the restored version,² the bridge is created almost entirely with the tetrachord.³ In the second half of measure 72, we observe applied motive splitting, in which the first four notes of the fugue theme appear as an independent motive. This mordent motive consists of the mordent as an upbeat to a target note on the downbeat. Showing a subtle gradual process, the first appearance shares the downbeat note F3 with the tetrachord group above, becoming then fully independent with all four notes in the second appearance (Example 47). The new motive will return in the closing recitativ part, assuming a significant role.

Suspense and action

Ten of the fourteen measures of the interlude contain repetitions of arpeggios in a persistent one-voice texture. Does this prove that the piece is inferior in quality as some critics have suggested? Indeed, no! The composer intended to set experimental textures in contrast to each other, instead of taking the well-beaten path of the learned polyphonic style. The interlude, together with the following theme entries, could hardly have been better designed to create suspense. In a movie scene, for example, the background music first becomes gradually quieter and simpler. It then lingers on one note at the end, until suddenly some unexpected action is in full swing. Like an experienced movie director, the composer of BWV 565 proved to be a master of suspense in this interlude. The figurations are placed in the somewhat weaker middle register, only to sink ever lower and become softer toward the end. The harmony oscillates between the tonic and dominant, finally retreating entirely to the tonic. The scene is devoid of any developed motives, as we sink further into the key of D minor.

A turn motive leads into measure 84 where the motivic substance with four descending tetrachords returns. These foreshadow the action in measure 85, where scales of two consecutive tetrachords rush upward twice (Example 48). Only the chromatic shift from F to F-sharp leading to G is needed to announce the theme in C minor, presented in the pedal. The alto voice prolongs the action with an immediate entry in the same key. Long trills enhance the thrill.

The interlude from the second half of measure 90 until the next theme entry in measure 93 is filled completely with tetrachords in all three voices. In Example 49, the motives are presented as eighth notes, omitting the inserted “step” notes to better display the structure. The top voice repeats the figuration from measure 54, except that the four-fold sequence now proceeds downward. In the first half of measure 92 two tetrachord variants switch the voices after only two notes.

In measure 94, several editors have added an A3 to the upper line on the last sixteenth-note beat. The C4, however, already serves as a passing note between B-flat3 and D4. Adding an A3 would result in parallel octaves with the bass. Furthermore, adding an F-sharp3 turns C4 into a dominant seventh requiring a resolution a step downward to B-flat3 (Example 50).

Measures 100 and 101 surprise us with a four-part texture for manuals only. The awkward voice leading requires a well-considered fingering, perhaps more than anywhere else in the piece. It may be that the composer never fully decided whether or not to assign the bass line to the pedal. At least the four quarter notes (which form a tetrachord variant) could conceivably be assigned to the pedal. The jump from the manual sixteenth-note group to the pedal quarter notes, however, is not entirely convincing (Example 51).

Before D minor returns with theme entries in all four voices, an extensive interlude develops the nucleus. Examples 52 and 53 show the many variants and how and where they appear. Motives related to the nucleus are colored red, tetrachords and its variants green, and the remote relatives blue. Gray boxes underline the mordents.

In the interlude section of measures 115 through 119, the trichord returns, alternately ascending and descending within the figurations (Example 54). Forming a climax in measures 120 and 121, trichords are sequentially combined with tetrachords, the latter taken from the fugue theme (Example 55).

In measure 122, the last entry of the fugue theme is ingeniously preceded twice by the complete nucleus (Example 56). The green notes mark the transitional section where the nucleus becomes the fugue theme. After all this intense motivic-thematic work, only two consecutive cadences in the penultimate measure 126 are required to conclude the fugue and to end with a deceptive cadence on a B-flat major chord.

The Recitativ

The final section in the Ringk manuscript starts on a new page and spreads over two pages. Unfortunately half of the heading has been cut off. With the use of the letters “e,” “c,” “i,” “t,” and “a” from the title page, the upper case “R” from a signature entry, and the lower case “v” from the designation Vivace, the heading may be reconstructed (see gray area). Suddenly Recitativ, rather than Recitativo emerges from the manuscript (Example 57).

The recitativ opens with passagework that is entirely based on tetrachords. The red notes in Example 58 reveal the presence of the mordent.

The “Adagissimo” in measure 130 stops on the third note of a tetrachord. Instead of progressing to F4, the expected F surprisingly jumps to the bass, interrupting the resolution of C-sharp to D. It creates an expressive four-fold dissonance with the diminished-seventh chord, a reminiscence of measure 2. A pedal solo recitative leads into a six-four chord in A minor, which in turn is transformed into a six chord in C major by the tetrachord of the first four notes of the nucleus. A performance suggestion to add a mordent on the A3 would serve as a helpful reminder to the performer (Example 59).

The run spanning measures 133 and 134 develops the mordent motive. In addition, all of the notes on the same beats form trichords and tetrachords (Examples 60 and 61).

In measure 136 we discover the retrograde form of the nucleus (Example 62), and in measures 138 and 139 the retrograde form of the B-A-C-H motive. Five descending tetrachords create the framework of the seven closing measures (Example 63).

Startling truths

The note-by-note analysis has revealed two startling truths:

• BWV 565 was composed throughout with a compositional technique called thematic work (thematische Arbeit).

• Measured against Baroque compositional practice, the composer of BWV 565 preferred experimental textures with contrasting character instead of the traditional techniques of Baroque counterpoint.

Therefore, we must conclude that:

• BWV 565 was in all probability not composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. The compositional technique of motivic-thematic work emerged after his death in German and Austrian countries during the second half of the eighteenth century. As a musical term, it was first defined in 1802 by Heinrich Christoph Koch, and Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) has long been considered the first composer to develop the technique.

• There is not a single piece in Bach’s huge œuvre that uses motivic-thematic work, especially to this extent. It is also highly unlikely that he wrote an experimental piece contrary to his musical beliefs, which also anticipates a compositional style first described decades later.

• Pejorative criticism is based on misunderstanding—BWV 565 is anything but youthful or immature. The opposite is true. It has been so skillfully composed that its true nature has remained overlooked for centuries.

• Although BWV 565 may resemble Baroque textures such as the stylus phantasticus, there is not a single example of stylus phantasticus where the parts relate to each other so extensively on a motivic-thematic basis.

• BWV 565 deserves a prominent place in music history, since it may represent the first example of a piece continuously based on motivic-thematic work.

• Whoever composed BWV 565 anticipated distinctly several compositional principles of the Classical era.

Part 5 of this article will further explore these startling assertions, and Part 6 will present an answer to the question, “Who else?”

To be continued.

Notes

1. Pianist-musicologist Dr. John Strauss of Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, was of invaluable help in providing dedicated advice and assistance to the author in the completion of this text.

2. The Diapason published the restored version of measure 72 in “The fitting filler for the fugue,” by Michael Gailit, January 2021, page 17.

3. Tetrachord is the Greek term for four consecutive notes in one direction. The motivic development in BWV 565 occasionally changes the form of the tetrachord. The nature of the compositional style allows for application of this term for all note combinations whose material consists of four consecutive notes, no matter in which order they appear. However, the basic shape of the stepwise progression in one direction should be recognizable.

Michael Gailit graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with both performance and pedagogy diplomas in organ as well as in piano. Teaching piano at this institute since 1980, he has also conducted the organ studio at the Musik und Kunst Universität in Vienna since 1995. As church organist he served at St. Augustine’s Church, 1979–2008; in 2011 he was appointed organist at the Jesuit Church (Old University Church).

Both in his performance and teaching repertoire, Gailit includes all style areas on the base of their individual performance practices. He toured with solo recitals on both instruments in Europe as well as in North America and appeared with leading orchestras and renowned conductors. Recordings, masterclasses, invitations to juries, musicological publications, editing sheet music, compositions, arrangements, supporting the piano-organ duo repertoire, commissioned works, first performances, and finally occasional trips into the theatre and silent movie repertoire should be noted.

Particular attention was received in 1989 for the first performance of the complete piano and organ works of Julius Reubke, the performance of the complete organ works of Franz Schmidt the same year, as well as in September 2005 a series of six recitals with the trio sonatas of Johann Sebastian Bach, the organ sonatas of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and the organ symphonies of Louis Vierne. Currently Gailit is working on a book The Enigma BWV 565, a study elucidating new answers and new questions.

Editor’s note: Part 1 of this series appeared in the June 2021 issue of The Diapason, pages 18–19.

The analysis of the first twelve measures revealed a compositional technique that can most aptly be described as metamorphosis. The list of the motives that appear in BWV 565, given in detail in the first part of this article, shows how one motive becomes the other (Example 15). In the last consequence, the mordent motive creates all others. This evolutionary style of composition appears on all levels. The mordent creates what we called a nucleus idea, which in turn creates the next two phrases. A part of the nucleus idea creates the ascending triplets, which in turn develop into the descending triplets. The closing section varies measures 1 and 2 and ends with the mordent motive.

From three to four

The second section, measures 12 through 30, continues this concept, only that the focus changes from three-note motives to four-note ones. In order to achieve a smooth transformation, the section starts with an upbeat to a trichord. The following tetrachords are rhythmically shifted in the same way, so that they appear as trichords with upbeats. The passage also prepares the fugue theme that shows a very similar structure of four consecutive tetrachords. Pitch notation of the opening phrase of the first part had assisted to discover the 3 x 3 form of the nucleus idea. Pitch notation of the current phrase now reveals a 4 x 4 structure (Examples 16 and 17). Both lines add another 4 x 4 notes as inserted repetitions of the dominant tone.

Simultaneous notation of the immanent two voices in measures 13 through 15 helps to understand the process. Edition Peters gives the original text of the earliest manuscript. Bärenreiter and Breitkopf & Härtel in their Urtext editions align measures 14 and 15 by substituting measure 14 with the octave transposition of measure 15. As we observe now, this contradicts the overall concept of continuous transformation. Measure 14 quotes the nucleus idea; measure 15 prepares the next section by changing the ending with the surprise of an eighth-note rest on beat one of measure 16 (Example 18).

In 1845–1846, the complete organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach appeared in print for the first time. This release by Edition Peters is considered a milestone, due in part to the editorial policy of Friedrich Conrad Griepenkerl (1782–1849), which abstained from any amendments. The eighth-note rest at the beginning of measure 16, however, obviously came as too great a surprise to the editor. He replaced it with a manual D31 without any reference to a manuscript source. In view of the preceding three-fold thundering D2 on the pedals, the eighth-note rest is only one of the many skillfully calculated effects in BWV 565.

The motivic substance of measures 16 through 20 consists of the tetrachord and the turn motive. Both textures, the figurations as well as the syncopated chords, follow a harmonic progression commonly known as the Phrygian cadence.2 This harmonic pattern is frequently inserted after a slow movement in order to prepare the listener for a finale. The transition from Adagio to Allegro in a voluntary by John Stanley (1712–1786)—with quite similar motives as BWV 565—demonstrates this function (Example 19).

The Phrygian cadence in BWV 565 comprises four chords consisting of four motives, two tetrachords and two turn motives (Example 20). The middle voice can count for two as the doubling of these notes in the thirty-second-note figurations suggests.

The syncopated chords appear four times, with a different pedal phrase each time (Example 21). The evolutionary concept of motive metamorphosis in BWV 565 requires abstention from the editorial practice of unification, in this case to replace phrase 2 by phrase 1. In measure 17, the bass and tenor notes are exchanged. The tenor varies the tetrachord E–D–C–B-flat in a new way by placing the first note at the end and an octave lower.

Whereas the Phrygian cadence aims to the last note in measures 16 through 18, its third and fourth appearances in measures 19 and 20 shifts the accented beat to the second note. This gives room for another chord on the last eighth-note beat in measure 20. On this beat, the new note of a G-sharp surprises; it gives the base for another diminished seventh chord. The G-sharp descends to the dissonance G-natural of the dominant seventh chord that spans over five more measures to be resolved only in measure 27.

Pitch notation shows that the run in measure 18 is a variation of measure 11, with some added notes (Example 22). It consists of a collection of the prime suspects—three tetrachords, a mordent, and a turn motive. Also, the arpeggio appears, this time following the tonic chord.

The passage ends in measure 19 with a scale comprising the complete tone material including the B-natural. This run is repeated in measure 21 without the passing notes (Example 23).

Four descending tetrachords run into a halt on the diminished seventh chord, before a prestissimo tremolo breaks loose. The toccata returns here to triplets and the mordent, whose intervals are stretched to thirds, with alternating upper and lower neighbor notes. The pedal surprisingly takes on a melodic role, worthy of the designation Recitativo. With the exception of the final cadence, the pedal lines up ten seconds, the last one repeating the first (Example 24).

Probably just a coincidence: we discover the first six notes of the pedal line in the Advent hymn, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (Example 25). More striking is that the pedal line cites the nucleus idea in the form of the second phrase in measure 1 (Example 26). The manual parts, note repetitions, and voice doubling omitted, consist only of seconds, which in turn are condensed tetrachords (Example 27).

The purpose

On the second page of Ringk’s manuscript, the last four staves are left blank. The fugue begins on a new third page. Ringk wrote, “Verte. Fuga.” (in Latin: Turn! Fugue.) below the final cadence on page 2. So before we turn the page and continue with the fugue, let us look at what has happened so far. BWV 565 is a work that undoubtedly attracts attention. So what was the purpose of the composition; why was it created? We need to leave the objective path of note-by-note analysis here. The meaning of a text cannot be grasped comparatively by counting the letters or discussing grammar and spelling.

Measures 16–17 and 19–20 were the first to open a new perspective. As mentioned earlier, we often find the harmonic pattern of the Phrygian cadence by default as a bridge between a slow movement and the following finale, as a musical announcement, and to increase the tension that a finale or something similar is to be expected. In measures 16 and 17, the Phrygian cadence is repeated four times, but it remains without consequence. After an extended run, the cadence is repeated again, a full three times, and it again remains without consequence. Is this a joke? A prank?

The impression is reinforced by the inverted echos of the section. It is in the nature of an echo that the return sounds weaker. However, in the Phrygian cadential measures in BWV 565, the reverse is true. The harmonic pattern is introduced with a thin texture of broken chords, only to be answered with heavy chords above a pedal line, plus hammering syncopations. Is this a provocation?

Flawless part-writing includes avoidance of parallel octaves and fifths. Let us imagine a student, required to submit a clean four-part piece, presenting the strict teacher something hitherto unheard like BWV 565. Seated at the organ console, the teacher begins to play. On the first page parallel octaves as far as one can see. The first note isolated, nailed with a mordent and a fermata, immediately followed by a rest. Short phrases, constantly interrupted with more rests. Laughter in the background, when the teacher has to take note that his organ is missing the bottom C-sharp. Broken chords are based on parallel fifths. In the pedal, there are only three roaring Ds, above them long-held quadruple dissonances. Then one finds a run pointing to a D, but silence instead. The inverted echoes startle. The Phrygian cadence remains without consequence, sounding seven times in vain.

There is no evidence whatsoever that BWV 565 was intended as a joke or prank, just as a joke does not have the caption, “This is a joke.” The nature of a text can be discerned from its content and setting alone. The amazing thing about this theory is, however, that it can answer all hitherto raised questions, among them:

• Only one copy of the autograph survived, some of the notation is only sketched: BWV 565 was intended only for private use and not for publication.

• All compositional features described as problematic: deliberate violations of the rules to show a new style.

• Bach named as author on the title page, the work possibly not by Bach: the most plausible explanation for this contradiction.

• The wrong key signature on the title page “ex . d . # .:” one cannot seriously claim that someone copied a multi-page piece in D minor and the same person mistakenly writes D major on the title page. Furthermore, Ringk notated minor keys adding a flat to the key letter, major keys adding a natural, not a sharp. The sharp could be a hint pointing to the unusual content, which is so-to-speak not natural, but sharp. In German, the word for sharp is Kreuz, which conveys the saying, ein Kreuz haben, having problems with something or someone.

• The simple composition style: simplified overdrawing as a device of parody.

• The low C-sharp in measure 2 being a rare key on organs of the time: deliberately pointing to the deficiency of a missing key.

• The late Peter Williams’s theory of a lost piece for violin: an allusion to J. S. Bach’s skills as a string player.

Following this theory, somewhere at an early stage someone took the piece as serious. The consequences are outrageous and at the same time incredibly humorous. It is singular that BWV 565 beats any other organ work in popularity. Then there are also all the discussions about the deliberately composed “misbehaving” features, if they can be credited to Bach or not. It is a work brilliant on several levels: as a provocation, fun, or a prank with a highly skillful compositional technique not common in Baroque music, but pointing to the future.

This theory may or may not be the case, but the journey into the unknown of BWV 565 is far from over. We now turn the second page of the manuscript and explore not only the fugue, but also lift the anchors on some findings that are considered certain. Stay tuned.

To be continued.

Notes

^1. Note designations in scientific orthography: C2-C3-C4-C5-C6 (= traditionally C-c°-c′-c′′-c′′′).

^2. The Phrygian church mode has the half-tone step between the first and second and the fifth and sixth scale degrees. Church modes, however, are melodic, not harmonic entities.

Michael Gailit graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with both performance and pedagogy diplomas in organ as well as in piano. Teaching piano at this institute since 1980, he has also conducted the organ studio at the Musik und Kunst Universität in Vienna since 1995. As church organist he served at St. Augustine’s Church, 1979–2008; in 2011 he was appointed organist at the Jesuit Church (Old University Church).

Both in his performance and teaching repertoire, Gailit includes all style areas on the base of their individual performance practices. He has toured with solo recitals on both instruments in Europe as well as in North America and appeared with leading orchestras and renowned conductors. Recordings, masterclasses, invitations to juries, musicological publications, editing sheet music, compositions, arrangements, supporting the piano-organ duo repertoire, commissioned works, first performances, and finally occasional trips into the theatre and silent movie repertoire should be noted.

Particular attention was received in 1989 for the first performance of the complete piano and organ works of Julius Reubke (1834–1858), the performance of the complete organ works of Franz Schmidt (1874–1939) the same year, as well as in September 2005 a series of six recitals with the trio sonatas of Johann Sebastian Bach, the organ sonatas of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and the organ symphonies of Louis Vierne. Currently Gailit is working on a book The Enigma BWV 565, a study elucidating new answers and new questions.

Editor’s note: Part 1 of this series appeared in the June 2021 issue of The Diapason, pages 18–19; part 2 appeared in the July 2021 issue, pages 12–14.

The first and second articles of this series examined the first thirty measures up to the fugue of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565. Does it make sense to break down this most famous organ work into its smallest parts? Where is the benefit in lining up countless musical terms to describe one note combination after the other? Due to new evidence, the case of BWV 565 deserves a fresh review. Facts that were considered certain became open questions. This concerns first of all the compositional characteristics, but then also the earliest manuscript and its scribe, the dating, and finally, in the search for the author, the localization of a prime suspect.

In the toccata, hitherto undiscovered thematic processes of surprising density and an abundance of motivic metamorphosis has come to light. We apply now this note-by-note investigation to the fugue, the larger section of BWV 565. Measures 12 and 13 have already prepared the theme, as an adjusted stemming reveals (Example 28). Removing the repeating A from the fugue theme, a line emerges that strings together four tetrachords in the upbeat form of a figura suspirans. In addition, eight notes at the beginning represent the nucleus idea (as we labeled the opening mordent and the following descent). Both toccata and fugue start with the mordent A–G–A.

The general layout for the fugue provides for four voices. Actual four-voice texture, however, is only reached in eight measures:

• in measures 52 and 53 with the first pedal entry,

• fragmentarily in measures 100 and 101,

• in measures 120 and 121, where the first tetrachord of the fugue theme lines up in the pedal four times, accompanied by a homophonic texture on the manual,

• and in measures 126 and 127, supporting the climax character of the closing cadence.

Table 1 shows the structure of the fugue. Counting the measures of relevant sections, the sums happen to be all prime numbers. To assign any symbolic meaning to these numbers would be pure speculation. Their common property of avoiding regularity, however, makes them worthy of mention. There are:

• 13 theme entries,

• 29 full measures of the toccata section, the closing chord not included,

• 17 measures for the recitativ section, the closing chord in measure 30 included (with this closing chord both toccata and recitativ avoid an integer, as do all interludes but the first),

• 23 × 2 measures of toccata and recitativ sections together (23 measures on average for each section, but also here an instance to avoid exact 1:1 proportion),

• 71-measure compass of all interludes in the fugue,

• 97-measure compass of the fugue,

• 127 measures from measure 1 to the end of the fugue, and finally,

• 143-measure compass of the complete piece.

At this point, it can be assumed that the inclined reader has become familiar with the constant use and changes of the central motives of the work. Allow yourself the adventure of going on the motive quest yourself. You are welcome to take the role of a fictitious musical CSI agent and find out what all sorts of things the motives go through. Perhaps you like to report circumstantial evidence. Or read on right away.

Entries and counterpoints

The fugue coordinates thirteen theme entries in three groups. Two of the entries are one voice only, the first one of course, and then the twelfth, the pedal solo. Eleven of them are accompanied by a counterpoint in the sense of the word origin punctum contra punctum, Latin for note against note. Table 2 lists the counterpoints in pitch notation, grouped in context with the theme into four sections of four notes. This results in 44 motives that are all related to the main material, among them 21 tetrachords, all of them ascending (green notes in the table) and 14 cross motives (red notes in the table). On beat 1 we localize 24 mordents (highlighted with a gray box). The two immanent voices of the counterpoint to the eighth entry are notated in the table simultaneously, with the accessory notes grayed out.

The criticism regarding counterpoint in BWV 565 fixates on the lack of contrasting qualities. If these were present, however, any contrasting counterpoint would need to waive relationships to the thematic material. The motivic substance of the counterpoints mirrors clearly the ever-present thematic work in BWV 565, as does the variety to the concept of metamorphosis. The motivation for creating a work like BWV 565 may have been, among other things, to explore new qualities away from contrapuntal skills.

While the toccata opening moves almost exclusively in tonic and dominant harmonies, the fugue strongly inclines toward the subdominant G minor. Its theme allows the answer only in that key. Thus, the entries in the first development (the exposition) follow the unusual key sequence: D minor–G minor–D minor–G minor.

The second development starts in measure 57 with an entry in the parallel key of F major and returns with the next entry to D minor in measure 70. After the longest interlude in the fugue, the second development continues with two entries in C minor, rounded up with a fifth entry in G minor. The choice of C minor for two consecutive theme entries is not as far-fetched as sometimes described. If the answer to the theme has to join on the subdominant, only one step further in the circle of fifths is necessary to arrive at the double subdominant C minor.

The theme entry in measure 105 marks the beginning of the third development. Consolidating the main key, all entries remain in D minor. Observing the number of accidentals that belong to the keys of the entries, together with the indication in which voices they occur, the construction plan becomes apparent. The tenor entries are given in red capitals to underline their structural significance (Example 29).

The eleventh entry in measures 107 through 109, sometimes not counted as such, consists of four consecutive tetrachords and is therefore to be regarded as an entry of its own. This variant completes the entries in the final development in the number of four, and it occupies the allotted space in the soprano voice. On the one hand, the theme of a fugue has to remain true to its melodic shape throughout. On the other hand, small deviations from the original shape are justifiable when the theme appears four times in a row in the main key, especially in a piece so dedicated to thematic development. The four entries differ by the following properties:

• entry in measure 105: no changes;

• entry in measure 107: the first tetrachord replaces the repeated A by steps, the last two tetrachords take other positions (Example 30);

• entry in measure 109: waives all other voices as a pedal solo;

• entry in measure 124: the last two notes take other positions.

It looks like the modification of the last entry was necessary to insert another cadence to reach beat 1 with the closing chord. If the theme remained unchanged, the ending would have arrived half a measure early (Example 31).

The interludes

The figurations of the first interlude, measures 34 through 39, combine two tetrachords with almost only cross motives. For a clear graphic presentation, we combine the notes to chords in pitch notation and then project them colored on an open score. As before, the tetrachords are green, the cross motives red (Example 32).

The next interlude stacks only tetrachords across measures 41 through 45 (Example 33). The passage contains a maximum of motivic density. It is like one of those circulating riddles: how many tetrachords can you spot in these measures? The left hand twice has the Phrygian cadence D–C–B-flat–A an octave apart (red notes), plus G–F–E–D (brown notes), prepared by the upbeats F–E–D–C-sharp (green notes). The right hand has four descending tetrachords (red notes) answered by four ascending retrograde derivatives (cyan notes), the last one incomplete. Counting the colored groups, we add seven tetrachords since the last group lacks the last note; counting the ones with notes at the same positions (marked with gray slurs) we add another seven of them for the same reason of the last missing note. On top sits one more tetrachord with A–G–F–E (green notes). We finally arrive at a grand total of 19 tetrachords in four measures (Example 34).

Measures 45 and 46 serve as a transition and combine three turn motives with another variant of the tetrachord (Example 35). Measures 47 and 48 change to a polyphonic texture in complementary rhythms. The nucleus idea appears twice in D minor and split into its three-note groups, mordent—trichord—mordent (Example 36). Subsequently, the chain of sixteenth-note motives in measures 49 and 50 develops three four-note motives: the first four notes of the theme, the tetrachord, and the cross motive, the latter widely stretched (Example 37). Furthermore, the passage also hides two nucleus derivatives (red notes in the example). The counterpoint parts descend with a new aspect. Two tetrachords are notably extended in length and colored with chromaticism (Example 38).

The theme entries of the exposition each have gradually increased the number of voices. The maximum of four voices is reached with the pedal entry in measure 52. The following interlude in measure 54 goes back to three voices. The section repeats the tetrachord in the form of descending steps (Example 39). Since the pattern ascends four steps in measures 54 through 55, we discover eight more tetrachords and therefore a total of 16 tetrachords (Example 40). The pedal picks up the previously introduced idea and extends a tetrachord in length and with chromatic coloring (Example 41).

Three further half measures prepare the beginning of the second development. Modulating to F major, they are filled in the top voice one by one with two turn motives, two new tetrachord derivatives, and finally two simple tetrachords. The lower voice follows in parallel motion in four cases (Example 42). The theme appears with its counterpoint only, the number of voices shrinks further down to two. The next interlude, spanning measures 59 through 61, reduces further. The descending scales combine a pentachord and a tetrachord and ascend along a pentachord. So, this thin texture creates a mass of nine simultaneously ascending pentachords of the notes at the same position in the scales (Example 43)!

Still two voices, but due to the unison C again a thinner texture, measures 62 through 65 shift the mordent to the weak beats of simple figurations. As a result, the constant presence of the main motive of the piece goes surprisingly unnoticed (Example 44).

In measure 66, the reduction of voices finally reaches the texture minimum of one single voice. Simple broken chords suggest that all developmental procedures have ceased. The source of inspiration could have been the arpeggio in measure 2 as another welcome element to develop.

Each harmony is rolled twice, a performance practice best known from the Prelude in C Major, BWV 846, by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), which dates back to the collection of piano pieces of 1720 for Wilhelm
Friedemann Bach (1710–1784). Again, we combine the notes into chords in pitch notation and then project them on an open score. This reveals five lines with two tetrachords on top and three derivatives below (Example 45).

At 143 measures in total length, the center of BWV 565 is in the middle of measure 71. That is also the center of the D minor entry that in turn marks the center of the whole piece. In the earliest manuscript, measure 72 comprises only three beats of four sixteenth notes. A fitting filler dating from the beginning of the nineteenth century came into use up to the present. It completes measure 72 smoothly, but it deviates too much to claim authenticity. The author discovered that each theme entry appears unabridged, only in measure 72 it lacks a full beat in the earliest manuscript. Completing the theme and the counterpoint, measure 72 is automatically completed as well. Measure 72 regained in all probability its true original form (Example 46). The Diapason thankfully premiered this correction with the publication of “BWV 565: The Fitting Filler for the Fugue” by the author in January 2021, page 17.

Developing a piece with thematic processes gives numerous possibilities to create a diverse variety of music on the basis of unifying motivic material. Examples show, however, that one’s powder can be shot too quickly, that no further development could be found, and that initial momentum and power did not continue. Part 4 will pursue the question as to how or if the composer mastered this challenge.

To be continued.

Michael Gailit graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria, with both performance and pedagogy diplomas in organ as well as in piano. Teaching piano at this institute since 1980, he has also conducted the organ studio at the Musik und Kunst Universität in Vienna since 1995. As church organist he served at St. Augustine’s Church 1979–2008; in 2011 he was appointed organist at the Jesuit Church (Old University Church).

Both in his performance and teaching repertoire, Gailit includes all style areas on the base of their individual performance practices. He toured with solo recitals on both instruments in Europe as well as in North America and appeared with leading orchestras and renowned conductors. Recordings, master courses, invitations to juries, musicological publications, editing sheet music, compositions, arrangements, supporting the piano-organ duo repertoire, commissioned works, first performances, and finally occasional trips into the theatre and silent movie repertoire should be noted.

Particular attention was received in 1989 for the first performance of the complete piano and organ works by Julius Reubke (1834–1858), the performance of the complete organ works by Franz Schmidt (1874–1939) the same year, as well as in September 2005 a series of six recitals with the trio sonatas by Johann Sebastian Bach, the organ sonatas by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and the organ symphonies by Louis Vierne. Currently Gailit is working on a book, The Enigma BWV 565, a study elucidating new answers and new questions.

BWV 565 has survived only through one single copy by Johannes Ringk (1717–1778), with the title Toccata con Fuga ex d. According to Dietrich Kilian,¹ all other existing copies can be traced back to Ringk’s manuscript, directly or indirectly through an intermediate copy. We do not know if Ringk copied from a copy or from the original. A major debatable matter of the source is the incomplete measure 72. It comprises only three beats, four sixteenth notes are missing (Example 1).

Friedrich Griepenkerl published the organ works of Bach with Edition Peters in 1845. As for measure 72, he followed a copy of Johann Andreas Dröbs (1784–1852). Over 175 years have passed until today, and this version has become an integral part of the piece (Example 2).

The Dröbs version, however, cannot be considered original. Ringk’s measure 72 is too different to pass as a misread variant of Dröb’s measure 72. Dröbs invented a fitting filler for the falling fourth at the end of the bar, which rose to a welcome solution for all following editions.

The discovery presented here came along with a thorough investigation of the piece, which revealed a number of intriguing observations. One of them is a mistake that has been overlooked in all those 175 years. Throughout the whole fugue, all twelve other entries of the theme are complete, not shortened anywhere, comprising four tetrachords, groups of four consecutive steps in one direction.³ Apparently the theme in measures 70–72 lacks its penultimate sixteenth-note group (Examples 3, 4, and 5).

The smooth filler by Dröbs sounds satisfying. But the matter is not about filling a missing beat. It is about eliminating the obvious mistake of a missing beat in the theme and the counterpoint! The theme entry in measures 70–72 deserves to be complete like all other theme entries. The completion of measure 72 is only a welcome side effect. Needless to say that the passage has to be played on two manuals so that the two beats do not sound the same.

And exactly this makes the error in the source(s) comprehensible. All notes copied by Ringk in measure 72 are correct, no mistake there. In the course of the piece, Ringk had occasionally used abbreviated forms of notation. The different voice leading of beat 1 and 2 might have been overlooked, and it remained only mere intention to add bis over the group, a form of abbreviation Ringk applied for instance in measure 38 (Example 6).

A tiny x can be spotted at the beginning of measure 72 (Example 7). It suggests that Ringk was aware of the mistake, placing this marker as a reminder for further clarification, which in turn suggests the manuscript was not the autograph. This marker is placed exactly where the theme lacks the penultimate sixteenth-note group.

So, after 175 years, we follow the marker and apply the true fitting filler.

Notes

1. Dietrich Kilian, Johann Sebastian Bach, Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke. Serie IV, Kritischer Bericht, Teilband 2 (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1979), p. 518. 

2. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - PK, http://resolver.staatsbibliothekberlin.de/SBB000191C100000000.

3. Only the last note of the very last entry takes another direction, in order to fit into the cadence.

Michael Gailit graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with both performance and pedagogy diplomas in organ as well as in piano. Teaching piano at this institute since 1980, he has also conducted the organ studio at the Musik und Kunst Universität in Vienna since 1995. As church organist he served at St. Augustine’s Church, 1979–2008; in 2011 he was appointed organist at the Jesuit Church (Old University Church).

Both in his performance and teaching repertoire, Gailit includes all style areas on the base of their individual performance practices. He toured with solo recitals on both instruments in Europe as well as in North America and appeared with leading orchestras and renowned conductors. Recordings, masterclasses, invitations to juries, musicological publications, editing sheet music, compositions, arrangements, supporting the piano-organ duo repertoire, commissioned works, first performances, and finally occasional trips into the theatre and silent movie repertoire should be noted.

Particular attention was received in 1989 for the first performance of the complete piano and organ works of Julius Reubke (1834–1858), the performance of the complete organ works of Franz Schmidt (1874–1939) the same year, as well as in September 2005 a series of six recitals with the trio sonatas of Johann Sebastian Bach, the organ sonatas of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and the organ symphonies of Louis Vierne. Currently Gailit is working on a book The Enigma BWV 565, a study elucidating new answers and new questions.

Much has been written about Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565, and it seems that everything has been said. The work is considered an outstanding example of stylus phantasticus, a style of composition that encourages rhythmic and harmonic freedom. Effects play a greater role than contrapuntal substance, and in this respect BWV 565 has always been admired. Observations regarding its compositional quality, however, accumulated to such an extent that many have questioned whether it was actually composed by Johann Sebastian Bach.

In 1998, Rolf Dietrich Claus¹ examined in detail the problem of authorship. From the discussion of plausible answers to the questions raised, it was possible to distill a list of compositional features that exacerbated the questions of authenticity and quality. In turn, Christoph Wolff² in 2006 and Martin Blindow³ in 2019 showed that certain skillful structures and motivic relationships render doubts about quality or authorship obsolete. Moreover, the hurdle of finding an alternative composer could not be overcome.

Recently in 2020, Andreas Weil4 applied his historical-theoretical method and drew a comprehensive picture of the music theory of the time based on historic sources. After compiling a timeline from the gained information, features of BWV 565 were assigned to this timeline with the final conclusion that the piece was composed in 1702.

Finally, there is now this present study. Focusing solely on the musical text of BWV 565, it investigates the motivic structures and their development. What the notes can tell leads us into the unknown of BWV 565.

The nucleus idea

The opening phrase does not give the impression of a theme or a regular structure (Example 1). It sounds and looks like a nucleus idea ready for variation. When we disregard the note values, an astonishing proportion emerges. A total of nine notes fall into three groups of three notes each. The example in pitch notation (Example 2) shows their a–b–a′ form. Two mordent motives frame a trichord. The intervals of the melody progress from major seconds to minor seconds.

Nothing more than a coincidence is the relation to the number 9 when applying the Latin natural-order alphabet to the letters of the notes. The opening mordent notes A–G–A result in 1 + 7 + 1 = 9,
the trichord notes G–F–E result in 7 + 6 + 5 = 18 = 2 x 9, both motives therefore together 3 x 9.

The motives

The following list gives an overview of the motivic substance of BWV 565. All motives can be derived from the opening mordent (Example 3).

• The term mordent designates the ornament, but it is here also used for the motive with the same melodic shape.

• The trichord is created when the second step of the mordent does not return to the principle note, but proceeds in the direction taken.

• The tetrachord adds another note proceeding into the same direction.

• The cross motive reverses two notes each of the tetrachord.

• The turn motive gets its shape when the last note of the tetrachord changes direction. It also contains the trichord and the mordent.

• What we call the “kink” motive stretches the second step of the mordent.

• The figura messanza, generally taking many variants, shifts the mordent to the upbeat section in this case.

• The tetrachord becomes a figura suspirans when the last note falls on a downbeat.

All motives comprise three or four notes. The numbers 3 and 4 play a dominant role in the entire work. Further variations include mirrored versions or the tetrachord being split in two groups of two notes each, with the second group taking another position.

The second phrase varies the nucleus. The mordent opens, followed by a tetrachord whose four descending notes are interchanged forming the cross motive. The third phrase repeats the nucleus two octaves lower. The three phrases in A–B–A′ form reflect the a–b–a′ form of the nucleus notes, with both a–b–a′ and A–B–A′ arranged in descending order (Example 4).

Developments

The last four downbeat notes G–E–C-sharp–D in the first half of measure 2 are immediately repeated in reverse order in the second half of measure 2, followed by the transposition of the diminished triad to B-flat–C-sharp–E (Example 5). The B-flat completes the appearance of the main tone material (Example 6).

The next section, measures 4–7, develops the trichord—fittingly with triplets—in the complete range of the main tone material (Example 7). The motive is rhythmically shifted so that the second note becomes the downbeat note. This creates the “kink” motive that we find well prepared by the suspension figure at the end of the preceding section (Example 8). The fourfold repetition of the motive is repeated three times moving upward along the frame notes D–F–A of the tonic triad (Example 9).

For the figuration of the next section, measures 8–10, the intervals of the kink motive are stretched by a factor of two, the second becoming a third, the third becoming a diminished fifth (Example 10). The preceding section, measures 4–7, had

• a motive of stepwise note progression

• moving upward

• along the frame notes of a triad.

The present section, measures 8–10, switches everything and has

• a motive of triadic note progression

• moving downward

• along frame notes proceeding in stepwise motion.

The triad figures form three descending parallel scales until the leading tone C-sharp is reached to prepare the second pedal entry on D (Example 11).

The nucleus idea (measure 1) started on A5,5 running down a fifth to D5. The closing part of the first section, measures 10–12, is a variation of the beginning, measures 1–2: a long note, followed by a descending run, a closing mordent, a rising arpeggio, and another closing mordent. Compared to the beginning, the first note is extended upward a minor second to B4. The descending run quotes the complete main tone material, then extends downward a minor second to a mordent on C4-sharp. B-natural appears for the first time, preparing the raising arpeggio of the dominant seventh chord. It can be regarded as the resolution connected to the raising arpeggio of the diminished seventh chord earlier. The top two notes D4–F4 of the final chord in measure 12 are the delayed resolution of the last two triplet notes G4–C4-sharp in measure 10 (Example 12).

Lack of quality? The opposite—BWV 565 is an unparalleled example of motivic development. A mordent starts the piece, a mordent closes the first section (measures 11–12), and a mordent closes the second section and the whole part preceding the fugue (measure 30). The first mordent appears on the beat, the second mordent before the beat, and the third mordent after the beat (Example 13).

The first section, based on three-note motives, assigns to the pedal three isolated Ds. The piece starts with an A, the second part starts with an A as well (measure 12), as does then the fugue (measure 30). Every note appears to be placed on purpose.

To be continued.

Notes

1. Rolf Dietrich Claus, Zur Echtheit von Toccata und Fuge d-Moll BWV 565, 2nd ed. (Köln-Rheinkassel: Dohr, 1998).

2. Christoph Wolff, “Zum norddeutschen Kontext der Orgelmusik des jugendlichen Bach: Das Scheinproblem der Toccata d-Moll BWV 565,” in Bach, Lübeck und die norddeutsche Musiktradition, ed. Wolfgang Sandberger, 2nd ed. (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2006), 220–230.

3. Martin Blindow, “Zur Diskussion über die d-Moll-Toccata BWV 565,” in Acta organologica, vol. 36, ed. Alfred Reichling (Kassel: Merseburger, 2019), 401–429.

4. Andreas Weil, Der komponierende Organist um 1700: Studien zu Toccata und Fuge d-Moll BWV 565 von Johann Sebastian Bach (Köln: Dohr, 2020).

5. Note designations in scientific orthography: C2–C3–C4–C5–C6 (= traditionally C–c°–c’–c’’–c’’’).

Read more about Michael Gailit's thoughts on BWV 565.