What is "toccata"

Toccata \Toc*ca"ta\, n. [It., fr. toccare to touch. See Touch.] (Mus.) An old form of piece for the organ or harpsichord, somewhat in the free and brilliant style of the prelude, fantasia, or capriccio.

1724, from Italian toccata, from toccare "to touch," from Vulgar Latin *toccare (see touch (v.)). "A composition for a keyboard instrument, intended to exhibit the touch and technique of the performer, and having the air of an improvisation" [OED].

n. (context music English) A piece of music (usually for a keyboard instrument) designed to emphasise the dexterity of the performer.

n. a baroque musical composition (usually for a keyboard instrument) with full chords and rapid elaborate runs in a rhythmically free style

Toccata (from Italian toccare, literally, "to touch") is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers. Less frequently, the name is applied to works for multiple instruments (the opening of Claudio Monteverdi's opera L'Orfeo being a notable example).

The Toccata in D minor, Op. 11 is a piece for solo piano, written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1912 and debuted by the composer on December 10, 1916 in Petrograd. It is a further development of the toccata form, which has been used by composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Robert Schumann. Other composers of well-known toccatas include Maurice Ravel, Dmitri Kabalevsky and Aram Khachaturian.

Prokofiev's Toccata starts off with a persistent repetition of the note D, interchanged between the right hand (which plays the single note) and the left hand (which plays the same note but with the lower octave as well). After a brief development, there are chromatic leaps in the left hand while the right hand plays a repeated figuration. The two hands soon switch positions, although the leaps still continue for a while.

A series of split chromatic thirds leads upwards until a descending melody (in A) with chromatic third accompaniments begins, with the left hand traveling in contrary motion upwards. This leads back to the main repetition 'theme' before a very short pause. Both hands soon play a weaving series of the right hand's repeated figuration from the start, before the split chromatic thirds pattern reappears. This leads more violently to the descending melody pattern, but this time in D, before the D repetition 'theme' reappears, this time in alternating octaves in both hands. The Toccata slows down and halts temporarily before a chromatic rising scale leads to octave exhortations, followed by a glissando sweep up the keyboard to end on the top D.

This particular piece is an extremely difficult showpiece that is very popular with virtuoso pianists and has been recorded by many. According to the biography of the composer by David Gutman, Prokofiev himself had trouble playing it because his technique, while good, was not quite enough to master the piece. However this fact is not universally accepted and his performance as reproduced in 1997 for the Nimbus Records series The Composer Plays is certainly virtuosic. Additionally none of the leading biographies of Prokofiev, those written by Harlow Robinson, Victor Seroff, and even Israel Nestyev, mention any technical problems with the piano past his childhood born poor performance techniques which were later rectified through years of study after his graduation from the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

' Toccata (film) ' is a 1969 Dutch film directed by Herman van der Horst.

The Toccata in E-flat minor is a piece for solo piano written in 1932 by Aram Khachaturian. It is a favorite of piano students, and has been recorded many times.

Khachaturian wrote this work as the first movement of a three-movement suite for piano:

• Toccata
• Waltz-Capriccio
• Dance.

He wrote the suite in 1932 while studying at the Moscow Conservatory under Nikolai Myaskovsky. However, the Toccata became so well known so quickly that it is now considered a separate piece; the suite from which it came is little known. The first performance was given by then-classmate Lev Oborin, who also recorded it.

The Toccata utilises some Armenian folk melodies and rhythms, as well as baroque and contemporary 20th Century techniques. It begins Allegro marcatissimo. A central section Andante espressivo leads to a reprise of the opening motifs. The coda is based on the central section's theme. It lasts around 5 minutes.

Those who have recorded the Toccata include Benno Moiseiwitsch, Shura Cherkassky, Felicja Blumental, Mindru Katz, Ruth Laredo, Roland Pöntinen and Murray McLachlan.

The Toccata in C major, Op. 7 by Robert Schumann, was completed in 1836. The piece is in sonata-allegro form.

When the work was completed in 1836, Schumann believed it was the "hardest piece ever written. A series of chords introduce the main theme, which is believed to be the passage that Schumann injured his hands trying to master. The development features rapid unison octaves.

A typical performance of this piece lasts about six minutes.

Schumann dedicated the work to his friend Ludwig Schuncke, who had dedicated his Grande Sonata in G minor, Op. 3, to Schumann.