This is a straight forward piece in the spirit of late Romantic French organ toccatas. The simple form (essentially ABA') belies the sophistication of the underlying and surface-level harmonies. Large-scale harmonic motion is governed by tritones and semitones, while surface-level harmony features all the late Romantic tricks: extensive use of Neapolitan chords, augmented sixth chords, and chromatic linear harmony. All of this chromaticism is developed in the context of strict, late-17th Century manual figurations. In other words, the harmony sounds like Widor and the writing looks like Bach.
The Toccata No. 1 hits the ground running and never lets up. This is a surprising and exciting piece that works great as an encore.
6 pages; duration ca. 3:30
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