Toccata and Fugue in D Minor - By Bach

by Adele Lowen
- Discuss TV, video game, and movie sound tracks:
- sound tracks are the music played while we are watching something
- sometime we don't even pay attention to them because we are focused on what we
are watching
-sound tracks add to the feelings the viewer is to be experiencing
- watch YouTube: Bugs Bunny at the Symphony II: Rabbit of Seville excerpt with the
volume turned down, then watch it again with the volume turned up to hear the
sound track *click on the link below
- Bach wrote Toccata and Fugue in D- approximately 280 years ago for the organ
- music that is happy, cheerful, makes you want to move/dance is usually written in
major sounds and music that is sad, scary, spooky is usually written in minor sounds
*click on the link below (major sounds)
- today Toccata and Fugue in D- is often played in scary parts of shows to add suspense
even though TV and movies were not invented yet when Bach wrote it
- the feeling a song gives depends on the version that is played
- the melody can be changed or the instruments can be changed which can change
the mood the music gives the listener
- compare versions (from YouTube) of Toccata and Fugue in D- by J.S. Bach
- Kurt Ison on organ - discuss how the pipe organ works:
- taller the pipe, the deeper the pitch
- several keyboards, foot pedals, and pullers (working together
creates harmony)
- organist needs special training to be able to play a pipe organ
- pipe organs are usually found in churches or symphony halls
- the closest pipe organs I know of are in Edmonton
*click on the link below
- Vanessa Mae on violin
- she takes Bach's classical style and updates it
- Vanessa is the guest musician with the symphony orchestra playing along with her
- Vanessa is playing the melody while the symphony is playing the harmony
*click on the link below
- if you can imagine it, you can play it:
- Robert Tiso on the Glass Harp *click on the link below
- discuss how the dynamics add to the effect the music has on people

- bottle organ (just plays the melody) *click on the link below
- giant foot piano *click on the link below
- show Walt Disney's interpretation of Toccata and Fugue in D- from the Fantasia movie
Curriculum Concepts:
Melody: 5
Harmony: 1, 2, 9,
Expression: 3, 6, 10, 18
Listening: 5, 7, 15, 18, 21