Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
The following is an mp3 file of my orchestration rendering of the Fugue from Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor in its entirety (4 minutes, 48 seconds).
This realization of what is questionably* the most famous organ fugue over conceived was not an cheap attempt to de-throne Wendy Carlos (although it may have turned out that way - a 'cheap attempt'). It was instead simply a method used to test the basics of Digital Performer, recorded midi and digital audio.
While I did study piano in college, I am far from what I would consider a keyboardist. The midi tracks were laid down as separate parts of my own conception extrapolated from the original organ score. In effect this piece also tested my orchestration (gulp). I tried at all times to keep true to Bach's score, although I did change the emphasis of the pedal right before the recapitulation, because I've always found it to be more interesting than the counterpoint at that instant. The midi information was recorded from a written score by one of three methods:
1) I played them real time
2) I played them at half and even quarter time.
3) I step -recorded them in as close to real time as that process allows
Laying down the midi tracks was the hard part and this took me over a week - bringing them to voice via digital audio was done on a single rainy afternoon in the fall of 2001.
* - 'Questionably' refers to a generally unaccepted argument by musicologist Peter Williams who has questioned the authenticity of this work to be that of Bach. One of his major points is that there is no autographed copy of the manuscript, the earliest surviving copy being that of a pupil of a pupil, which WIlliams found unusual. However, we do know that Bach felt that after a piece was performed it was in effect 'done' and there was little use for its score. Indeed, it has been told that Mrs. Bach would use her husband's old manuscripts from to time to time to wrap fish in from the market. A horror to think what jewels we lost in the process! Williams also points out that this piece alone stands out both harmonically and contrapuntally from Bach's other organ works, the main objection to this being that Bach often broke his own molds.
TECHNICAL NOTES
This rendering I think gives a strong aurgument of the strengths of analog modeling over true analog and I would be curious to see the outcome of a blind taste test when asking people to pick from which it came. In fact, all of the voices present are digital - from either a Yamaha TX816 or a Waldorf Q which was on loan to me from Gary Chang.
The following is an mp3 file of my orchestration rendering of the Fugue from Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor in its entirety (4 minutes, 48 seconds).
This realization of what is questionably* the most famous organ fugue over conceived was not an cheap attempt to de-throne Wendy Carlos (although it may have turned out that way - a 'cheap attempt'). It was instead simply a method used to test the basics of Digital Performer, recorded midi and digital audio.
While I did study piano in college, I am far from what I would consider a keyboardist. The midi tracks were laid down as separate parts of my own conception extrapolated from the original organ score. In effect this piece also tested my orchestration (gulp). I tried at all times to keep true to Bach's score, although I did change the emphasis of the pedal right before the recapitulation, because I've always found it to be more interesting than the counterpoint at that instant. The midi information was recorded from a written score by one of three methods:
1) I played them real time
2) I played them at half and even quarter time.
3) I step -recorded them in as close to real time as that process allows
Laying down the midi tracks was the hard part and this took me over a week - bringing them to voice via digital audio was done on a single rainy afternoon in the fall of 2001.
* - 'Questionably' refers to a generally unaccepted argument by musicologist Peter Williams who has questioned the authenticity of this work to be that of Bach. One of his major points is that there is no autographed copy of the manuscript, the earliest surviving copy being that of a pupil of a pupil, which WIlliams found unusual. However, we do know that Bach felt that after a piece was performed it was in effect 'done' and there was little use for its score. Indeed, it has been told that Mrs. Bach would use her husband's old manuscripts from to time to time to wrap fish in from the market. A horror to think what jewels we lost in the process! Williams also points out that this piece alone stands out both harmonically and contrapuntally from Bach's other organ works, the main objection to this being that Bach often broke his own molds.
TECHNICAL NOTES
This rendering I think gives a strong aurgument of the strengths of analog modeling over true analog and I would be curious to see the outcome of a blind taste test when asking people to pick from which it came. In fact, all of the voices present are digital - from either a Yamaha TX816 or a Waldorf Q which was on loan to me from Gary Chang.
