There’s a nationwide decline in organists and to attempt to stem this the Royal Faculty of Organists (RCO) is devoting 2025 to its Play the Organ marketing campaign, aiming not simply to extend the variety of folks studying to play the organ, but additionally the quantity having fun with dwell and recorded organ music.
As a part of this, Will Fraser’s Fugue State Movies has filmed organist Daniel Moult taking part in Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 on the Arp Schnitger organ of the Martinikerk, Groningen.
The Schnitger organ of the Martinikerk is among the largest Baroque organs in Northern Europe and it tooks its current type within the late seventeenth and early 18th centuries as Arp Schnitger and his son expanded and developed an current organ. Through the later twentieth century it was restored again to its 1740 state.
Regardless of being one among Bach’s most well-known organ works, little is understood of the origins of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor. There isn’t any autograph rating and the piece is understood from a manuscript created by Johannes Ringk within the interval 1730 to 1760. Ringk, a famend organist and composer, had studied with one among Bach’s pupils, Johann Peter Kellner and it’s doable that Ringk’s copy of the Toccata and Fugue got here from Kellner’s assortment.
As a part of Play the Organ, the RCO has launched a brand new streaming service, in collaboration with Fugue State Movies, dedicated to the organ. The primary movie is a documentary made in regards to the Toccata and Fugue; a 100-minute documentary adopted by greater than two hours of filmed performances and displays. Full particulars from the RCO web site.
