Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565
May 26, 2024
In her final concert as Northwestern Director of Bands, Mallory Thompson conducts the Symphonic Wind Ensemble in J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565, transcribed by Donald Hunsberger.
About this Work
In scoring this work for winds, Donald Hunsberger has chosen an instrumentation that fully explores the technical potential of the wind ensemble while effectively imitating the timbre and registration of the organ. According to Hunsberger:
"The Toccata and Fugue in D Minor contains virtuosic writing combined with a recitative style. Within the Toccata itself there resides a freedom of tempo and technical display that is in great contrast to the formality of the various fugal statements and answers. The third part of the Toccata serves as a coda-like statement containing a recitative and various changes of texture and tempo, finally arriving at a Molto Adagio that closes the section to create a grand A-B-A form for the work. The fugue draws its theme from the downward motion of the opening Toccata melodic line. It proceeds through numerous development sections until finally arriving back at the free toccata-fantasia style."