Toccatas octava & nona

0:00--The 8th toccata in G begins on a sustained open fifth; it is the only one in the collection to announce itself without telling us whether it is major or minor. The brief introduction then picks up steam with nicely moving 8th notes throughout the four voices and ends on the dominant. A peppy fughetta with lots of repeated notes follows. It features wide open voicing, so I did have to use the pedal to get everything in there (manuals coupled down). After a sustained trill, the section elides into an Adagio conclusion.

Registrations:
1. principal 8' and copula major 8'
2. Quintadena 8' and quinta major
3. + all 8' and 4' flutes in the manuals, and the Petal stop (16' and 8' combo) in the pedals.

2:55--Toccata no. 9 begins with a five-measure Adagio introduction in Bb major. This is the first toccata not in a traditional church mode. The middle fughetta section in four voices is marked Allegro, the first one in the collection with this distinction. It is marked by a distinct, step-wise, 16th-note pattern of four notes. The end of this section has an obvious error in the score that I've corrected. The closing section is most harmonically interesting. It doesn't say to, but I returned to an Adagio sort of approach here to make the most of the sonic landscape that Speth worked out. (The chromaticism is intensely forward-looking and progressive for that time, intimating ideas that Reger could even use.)

Registration (pedals were not used at all here):
1. Combined principal chorus of 8', 4', 2', and 1' principals and octaves and mixtures from both manuals.
2. Principal chorus of the great.
3. Back to the combined manuals' principal chorus.

Both toccatas in this upload were played on the extended version of the key/pedalboards. I placed the instrument in Hauptwerk VIII's Hall no. 1, which has a 2.6 second reverb time. I found the sound bloomed nicely, yet quick notes still spoke clearly.