Introduction to “Toccata and Fugue in D minor” and “Take the A Train”

Music styles and tastes change extremely frequently, but they always give tribute to the styles and tastes that came before. New music must built on old foundations laid by the most accomplished musicians of earlier times. For example, modern jazz as we know it today would not exist if music icons such as Bach and Beethoven hadn’t come along and established standard techniques for music composition.

Bach is particularly important to the development of music due to his contributions in the areas of harmony and rhythm. Bach was unprecedented in his musical writings, his compositional style extensively developed major and minor keys, as well as counterpoint. Bach did not create new styles of music; instead he took old musical techniques and executed them at the highest level. Bach wrote his music primarily for the Church, but the list of Bach’s compositions is extremely diverse. He wrote his music for choirs, orchestras, and most importantly, the organ. “Toccata and Fugue in D minor” is the most well known of all his organ works, but it is also the quintessential example of a Bach Fugue. It starts with a Toccata section, but moves into a Fugue. When listening one should pay attention to the regular, non-syncopated rhythms as well as the call and response melody of the fugue.

“Take the A Train” on the other hand comes from a completely different musical culture. Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington wrote “Take the A Train” in 1941 for jazz big band. The jazz big band that would perform it would generally have 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, an upright bass, a drum set, a piano player, 4 saxophones, and a clarinet player. The instrumentation is very different to the Fugue; you need around 20 people to perform “Take the A Train” whereas you only need one organ player to play Bach’s Fugue. The piece is considered absolute music, meaning that it was written for the sake of the music. “Take the A Train” would also be considered pop music since jazz was especially prevalent in American culture at the time of its composition. Jazz was particularly popular in African American communities through the 20^th century as it takes root in western classical music and slave folk songs.