Toccata and Fugue in D minor for kids: what to hear

The Toccata and Fugue in D minor is the best-known piece for the pipe organ. Children know its first notes as haunted house music. It is about nine minutes long, it carries Johann Sebastian Bach’s name, and it holds a small mystery.

Quick facts

• Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach, who lived from 1685 to 1750
• Written: nobody knows the year. Most guesses put it in his youth, soon after 1700.
• Length: about 9 minutes
• Played on: a pipe organ
• Catalog number: BWV 565. Read what opus, K, and BWV numbers mean.

The first ten seconds

The piece opens with a short, sharp flourish high on the keyboard, then a silence. The same flourish comes again, lower. Then it comes a third time, lower still. After that, the organist builds a huge chord one note at a time, from the bottom up, and lets it roar.

Those ten seconds are the part everyone knows.

Two pieces in one

The toccata. The word comes from the Italian for “to touch.” A toccata is a piece that shows off the player’s fingers. It sounds made up on the spot, with fast runs, sudden stops, and big chords. It lasts about three minutes.

The fugue. A fugue is a chase. One voice plays a short tune alone. A second voice comes in with the same tune while the first carries on. Then a third joins, and a fourth. The tune keeps coming back, high and low, for the rest of the piece. Read what is a fugue?

At the end, the free, showy style of the toccata returns for a grand finish.

The organ

A pipe organ makes sound by blowing air through pipes. A big one has thousands of them, from pipes smaller than a pencil to pipes as tall as a house. The organist plays several keyboards with the hands and one more with the feet. In this piece, watch a video and look for the feet. They play the lowest notes. Read keyboard instruments for kids.

Why it sounds spooky

Bach did not write it to scare anyone. It was music for a church organ.

The spooky idea came 200 years later. Makers of early horror films used the piece for mad scientists and gloomy castles, and cartoons copied them. The piece is in a minor key, it is loud, and an organ in a big stone room echoes. That was enough.

Walt Disney’s film Fantasia opens with it, in a version for full orchestra. Read the Fantasia music list.

The mystery

No copy of this piece in Bach’s own handwriting exists. The oldest copy was made by another musician. Some experts have asked two questions.

• Was it first written for the violin? Parts of it sit under the fingers the way violin music does.
• Did Bach write it at all? A few experts think a different composer did.

Most musicians still call it Bach’s. Nobody can prove the answer either way. Read Bach for kids.

Things to do together

• Count the three drops. At the start, hold up one finger for each flourish, then spread your arms for the big chord.
• Catch the fugue tune. After about three minutes, a quick, busy tune begins alone. Raise a hand each time it starts again.
• Watch the feet. Find a video filmed from beside the organist.
• Change the mood. Play the opening in daylight, then with the lights off. Talk about how the room changes what you hear.
• Compare two versions. Play the organ version, then the orchestra version from Fantasia. Vote for one.

Questions to ask

• Does this music sound scary to you? What makes it so?
• How can you tell when the toccata ends and the fugue begins?
• How many keyboards can you see?

Words to know

• Toccata: a fast, showy piece for a keyboard
• Fugue: a piece in which several voices play the same tune one after another
• Pedals: the keyboard an organist plays with the feet
• Minor key: a set of notes that tends to sound dark or sad

Print and play

For the instrument, read the pipe organ for kids. Draw what you hear on a listening journal page. For more music for a dark night, read spooky classical music for Halloween. For the time Bach lived in, read Baroque music for kids. More guides are listed in classical music listening guides for kids.