Toccata quarta oder viertes musicalisches Blumen-Feld

The opening of Speth's fourth toccata with its massive, sustained e minor chord is very similar to the dramatic minor announcement in his third, except this time he calls for alternation between loud and soft chords, and there is a pedal point drone. This drone, to me, required more oomph than my IA Pusztaszabolcs organ had.

I was missing a pedal reed. Many South German organ Baroque instruments don't have them, and most of the time the music works great without. But a few instruments do, and this particular movement out of all ten of Speth's toccatas just clamors for a reed for the first section.

Mr. Grabowski generously made available for free a sample of a similar instrument, Strassburg, and added a 16' reed to the pedal for the virtual version, which is what was in my head for the sound. So I've recorded the fourth toccata on that instrument, and I'm very pleased with the result. As the pedal descends stepwise from low E to low C, the posaune becomes more and more exciting.

Part one of this toccata is in a call and response form. Part two is a very fun fughetta in four voices. And the coda returns with the call and response material from the opening section.

I did not utilize the pedal reed for the coda, as I wanted to concentrate more on the dynamic changes between keyboards. I took the piano responses even quieter than in the opening, and even quieter still for the final answer.

Of the five I've recorded so far, this is my favorite piece. I love the drama of the large chords and the terraced dynamics, and the contrapuntal middle section seems the most fun in personality yet.

I didn't make any changes or adjustments to Grabowski's sample here other than use the extended chromatic version he offered. I was most pleased with the results as they were.