Helpful Hints for Playing the Widor Toccata - Part II 

Tempo Tempo Tempo! It's not a race yet so many organists perform it as nothing more than a technical exercise. An electronic sequencer could be used and save everyone a lot of pain. Listen to Widor himself. Not only is he much slower than you might imagine, but there are tempo variations within his performance as well. I have my students play this really slowly to gain security before we even attempt to take the brakes off. I had one student, an elderly man who was once an FRCO but had suffered three strokes which left him with left side weakness. He desperately wanted to 'reacquire', as he put it, the Widor. So we started slowly...very, very slowly. He had little control over the fingers of his left hand and almost no sensation in his left foot so feeling for pedals was, for him a nightmare. I have never seen anyone more determined. It took six months of gruelling effort on his part but he got there. I am unashamed to admit that when he played this piece (from memory, I might add) at one of my concerts, the tears were rolling down my face.

Excellent! All of these years I have been intimidated by this piece, despite playing other difficult repertoire. Thank you for making this so much more accessible!

Thanks for these two vids. Perhaps I'll be brave enough to attempt it now.

Playing on the Récit division stops alone while actually playing on the Grand Orgue manual was standard procedure on French Romantic organs in such contexts as you described here. It's why they so often had the device called "Grand Orgue sur machine," which activated the Grand Orgue division to play on the Barker level action. This is explicitly spelled out in the "Procession" movement of Henri Mulet's Esquisses Byzantines. One could play on the Grand Orgue manual, with its Barker lever making the coupling action light, with only the Récit coupled, then later couple in the Positif, the. activate the Grand Orgue, all while not having to move the hands to another keyboard.

Wow just found this video, thanks for your generosity for sharing your knowledge, l most definitely will be taking a closer look at this tocatta .

An excellent question, indeed, Krummhorn! The majority of the work is done by the fingers, which specifically means the area of the hand between the knuckles to the tips of the fingers. The remainder of the hands must be consciously relaxed. Furthermore, the hands need to be supported by completely relaxed wrists, elbows, and shoulders. If these elements are not relaxed, the tension and stress there will be transferred to the hands, and they will experience fatigue. This relaxation and finger control must be programmed in at the slowest tempo and not abandoned as you VERY GRADUALLY increase your speed. Please contact me at phillip@cioa.global if you would like me to take a video-look at your present approach.

Really good idea about staying on the same manual, but why? It's a D Major chord. It's as simple as breathing and lifting. No? Also, m. 63 .. pianists always revoice chords that aren't accessible to play, but in this case ... the transition to the new position is just as "extreme" as if it were to be played with the top "f". Sorry, I know I am coming across (probably) as really irritating and "one of those" .. and while these suggestions are well-intended, are they really practical? Though, I 100% agree with the left hand going above rather than below and under!

Although the sound quality is really bad, this video contains very good advices.

Can you talk more about finger technique? It's very easy for one's hands to start feeling stiff part way through the piece. How do you keep everything relaxed? Sure, start slow, but what else? Thanks!

Thank you for the helpful videos. I also would like to hear your fingering advice for the left hand arpeggios at the key change to D major, especially the second beat.

I want to ask, what is the appropriate tempo for this song? otherwise this video helped me a lot. Thank you😁

Thanks. Question: bars 37&38 have a persistent E in the left hand semiquaver runs - is that right? It sounds jarring.

I love the piece but I have never played an organ, could I learn to play it in 2 weeks?

Chicago International Organists, Do you have a section that is focused on the right hand for the opening of the Harmony line of the Widor's Toccata of 5th Symphony? Just this section to practice?

No advice on pedalling unfortunately for those of us who are now blessed with an arthritic hip! The leaps are a killer.