Toccata in E minor, BWV 914

Keyboard music was originally intended to accompany choral songs such as motets or madrigals in 5 parts, and later polyphonic in three or more parts. The toccata is first mentioned in the publication of a collection of lute music in 1536, Bach wrote the Toccata in E minor alongside six other keyboard toccatas, BWV 910–916, between 1707 and 1710 or 1711, before the age of 30. The Toccata in E minor was likely composed in 1710. ==Bach==

Bach worked as an organist for Duke Johann Ernst in the Duchy of Weimar from 1708 until 1717. It is during this period that he likely wrote his seven toccatas for the harpsichord, including the Toccata in E minor. While Bach wrote many of these toccatas for the organ, he composed seven "manualiter" (effectively, harpsichord) toccatas in the stylus fantasticus genre, allowing him to focus on compositional and structural details of the music. ==Structure==

The composition is divided into four parts, The section is understated and has a light texture, suggesting that it might have originally been composed for the lute. The central four-note motif of the section would also have been ideal for organ pedal. II The second part is an allegro double fugue for four voices, imitating a chorale, where the melodies are developed both simultaneously and in succession. Some consider this to be the core of the entire toccata. III The third part is a recitative or "rhapsodic" adagio that includes broken-chord passages (the notes of the chords played one at a time), at a varied but overall slower pace, with an improvisational style and elaborate ornamentation. IV The fourth part concludes with a "brilliant" fugue in three voices, with rapidly moving melodies. Its rapid pace creates a strong contrast with the preceding section. Many musical scores for BWV 914 give only this final fugue, rather than the entire toccata in four parts. ==Authorship controversy==

Musicologist Giorgio Pestelli describes the Toccata in E minor as a "fugue dissolved in toccata" and thus a "crucial piece for the link" between Bach's fugues and the Italian toccata form. The anonymous fugue derives from a Neapolitan manuscript (Naples Bib. Cons. MS 5327, ff. 46’–49’) also containing several other pieces, including by Giovanni Benedetto Platti and Francesco Durante, composers who worked in Germany during Bach's life. The fugue in the manuscript is attributed to Marcello, but according to professor Selfridge-Field is "not characteristic of Marcello's keyboard music," raising the possibility that Bach's original composition may have made its way to Italy. Multiple copies of the toccata, with variants and corrections, suggest a process of composition by Bach himself; nevertheless the authorship controversy is unresolved. ==Reception==

The Toccata in E minor has been described as the "best known" of Bach's toccatas. ==References==