Bernard Foccroulle

Toccata

Toccata was composed in 2001 for the inauguration to the Freytag/Tricoteaux grand organ of Saint-Vaast church in Béthune (France). The piece was conceived for a grand organ of North-German style and has its roots in Dietrich Buxtehude's piece. It is inspired by the shattered form and rhetoric of his Preludia and Toccatas and consists of different and very contrasted sections. What always impressed me in Buxtehude, besides his mastery of Stylus Fantasticus, is his capacity to produce the most startling color, character, and rhythmic contrasts while reaching a deep and mysterious unity in each piece. The ostinati play a major role, to a point that composition is almost as much about the Passacaglia than the Toccata. Here and there appear quotes from the choral melodies Komm Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott, Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin as well as the Magnificat of the first tone. The registration indications are purely informative. Each organist will have to freely adapt them depending on the instrument.

Bernard Foccroulle English translation: Gustave Leber