Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major, BWV.564
Baroque FugueToccata Piano solo ~14 min
In brief

The work projects a bright, restless character: the Toccata presents a percussive, springy energy, the Adagio offers suspended, singing lines, and the Fugue restores a sustained contrapuntal tension. Technically, you will need to focus on Staccato (4.4/5) — here that means producing crisp, detached attacks while retaining rhythmic drive through controlled finger release — and Polyphony in three voices or more (4.4/5), which requires finger independence and clear voicing of inner lines while preserving overall balance. It is a Baroque piece placed in Bach's catalogue among works that combine virtuosic display and rigorous counterpoint, typical of his instrumental output where technique serves structure. I do not give a reference performance here because I prefer not to cite a recording unless I am fully certain of its suitability.

Listen to this work

These recordings are found automatically, and the machine still gets it wrong. One click from you — yes or no — fixes the catalogue for every musician who opens this page after you. Across our 10,000 works, your answer is our only real quality check.

An arrangement or transcription is fine: if you recognise the work, answer yes. Answer no if it is a different work, a different composer, or if the recording does not play.

  • Play — Bach - Toccata, adagio and fugue in C major BWV 564 - Smits | Netherlands Bach Society · Netherlands Bach Society (the player loads on click)

    Open on Youtube ↗

    Is this the right work?
  • Play — Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major, BWV 564: 3. Fugue · Johann Sebastian Bach, Jean Guillou (the player loads on click)

    Open on Spotify ↗

    Is this the right work?

No account is required and no personal data is collected.

Sheet music

Public-domain sheet music on IMSLP ↗

Is this the right work?
MusicCoach difficulty
86/100
Master repertoire
Likely range : 78–94/100
Confidence : 60% · fair confidence
BeginnerIntermediateAdvancedVirtuoso
Exam grade
About grade 8

Estimated from our difficulty score, not taken from an exam syllabus. Checked against 333 works on the ABRSM syllabus: the exact grade is right 7 times out of 10, and within one grade 99 times out of 100.

Difficulty estimate by MusicCoach on a scale of 1 to 100.

Where this work sits
050100

Most works cluster between 45 and 65: a small score gap often marks a real step. The highlighted bar shows this work among those for the same instrument.

The MusicCoach difficulty measures a work's overall demands (technique, reading, stamina) on a shared 0-100 scale, consolidated from editorial and pedagogical reference points (Henle, exam syllabuses, curation) and our own analyses. It measures neither musical value nor the practice time YOU will need: two musicians of the same level can experience the same work very differently depending on their strengths (hands used to octaves, quick sight-reading…). The confidence reflects how many reference points sit behind the score and how well they agree — a lightly documented score is flagged “to validate”. For a truly personal bearing, the diagnostic and your space compare each work to YOUR estimated level, which the score alone cannot do.

Does this rating look right to you?

This rating is computed automatically from heterogeneous sources. It gets things wrong, sometimes badly. If you know this work, your answer is worth more than our computation: it tells us which ratings to review.

Add a note (optional)

Your note is not published on the site: it is read in review.

Relative difficulty
99%
Among Johann Sebastian Bach
96%
Era Baroque
95%
Genre
Estimated skills
Technique
Staccato
1
Theory
Harmonic analysis
2
Technique
Fast passages
2
Technique
Three-or-more-voice polyphony
3
Reading
Bass clef reading
1
Ornaments
Baroque ornaments
2
Style
Baroque style
2
Tone
Touch control
1
Technique
Hand independence
1
Pedaling
Sustain pedal
1
Technique
General technique
1
Technique
Trills
1
What to play next?

Each suggestion combines difficulty gap, risk, confidence and skill overlap. The first two cards in each column are the most useful pedagogically.

Ambitious challenge

A useful leap with guided practice.

No suggestion yet.

See the whole progression