Organ Stop List

People have repeatedly asked my for a spec sheet for the Rodgers organ I played on for my recent Halloween recital.  Here it is.

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor

This is me having fun with the great Toccata and Fugue in D Minor at a Halloween Organ Recital.  Historically this piece is recognized as being composed by J. S. Bach but musicologists, organists and Bach scholars have long questioned whether Bach actually wrote this piece. Technically, here is nothing specific about Bach in it.  It is actually believed that the original piece was not in D minor, not a toccata and fugue, not for the organ, but for the violin and written in A minor. 

http://youtu.be/TkjF2Vtzwjs

A few of the many reasons that Bach scholars question its authorship is 1) Bach would not have ended the piece with a minor plagal cadence (take a peek at his Little Fugue in G Minor as an example of how he would have ended it).  2) Bach would not have started the piece in octaves.  3) The original manuscript was written in D minor but without a flat.  4) It is not in the intellectual style of Bach.  Certainly the piece was written to dazzle and show off but it does not have the contrapuntal sophistication of Bach and, the fugue is not at all complicated or brilliantly worked out as much of Bach's other fugues are.  5) The diminished seventh is used throughout the piece repetitiously and rather naively. 

The original manuscript was in the handwriting of Johann Rinck (Johannes Ringk) who was a student of Johann Peter Kellner.  Kellner knew Bach and was a student of Johann Christian Kittel and Kittel was Bach's last student.  Many music scholars beleive that the piece was actually a composition of Kellner's which Rinck copied since it is in Kellner's style.

The greater question is: Does anyone care?  Not in the least.  It is still a great piece of music hitting the bulls-eye for generations of listeners.

http://youtu.be/TkjF2Vtzwjs