Toccatas BWV 910 916

In 1708, Johann Sebastian Bach, who was then 23 years old, moved to Weimar in order to occupy the position of organist at the court of Duke Wilhelm Ernst. When he arrived in Weimar, Bach had probably already embarked on the composition of some of his seven Toccatas BWV 910-916. Unlike other great collections of pieces for keyboard instruments, such as the Suites, the Partitas and the Well-Tempered Clavier, the toccatas however were never organised by Bach into a unitary cycle. This fact, which undoubtedly makes it more complicated to investigate the process of their composition, should not induce us to overlook the governing principle that unites them : the Toccatas are stylistic laboratories through which Bach perfected and consolidated his musical language, making the most of the expressive potential of keyboard instruments. Although the word "toccata" denotes written pieces, here it fully expresses the experimental connotation that links the toccata to the world of improvisation, understood as an extemporaneous quest for new harmonic, melodic and formal configurations.