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Toccata (from
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
''toccare'', literally, "to touch", with "toccata" being the action of touching) is a
virtuoso piece of music typically for a
keyboard
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
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
''L'Orfeo'' ( SV 318) (), sometimes called ''La favola d'Orfeo'' , is a late Renaissance/early Baroque ''favola in musica'', or opera, by Claudio Monteverdi, with a libretto by Alessandro Striggio. It is based on the Greek legend of Orpheus, and ...
'' being a notable example).
History
Renaissance
The form first appeared in the late
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
period. It originated in northern Italy. Several publications of the 1590s include toccatas, by composers such as
Claudio Merulo
Claudio Merulo (; 8 April 1533 – 4 May 1604) was an Italian composer, publisher and organist of the late Renaissance period, most famous for his innovative keyboard music and his ensemble music composed in the Venetian polychoral style. He wa ...
,
Andrea and
Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554/1557 – 12 August 1612) was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift f ...
,
Adriano Banchieri
Adriano Banchieri (Bologna, 3 September 1568 – Bologna, 1634) was an Italian composer, music theorist, organist and poet of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He founded the Accademia dei Floridi in Bologna.
Biography
He was bo ...
, and
Luzzasco Luzzaschi
Luzzasco Luzzaschi (c. 1545 – 10 September 1607) was an Italian composer, organist, and teacher of the late Renaissance. He was born and died in Ferrara, and despite evidence of travels to Rome it is assumed that Luzzaschi spent the majority o ...
. These are keyboard compositions in which one hand, and then the other, performs virtuosic runs and brilliant cascading passages against a chordal accompaniment in the other hand. Among the composers working in Venice at this time was the young
Hans Leo Hassler
Hans Leo Hassler (in German, Hans Leo Haßler) (baptized 26 October 1564 – 8 June 1612) was a German composer and organist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras, elder brother of less known composer Jakob Hassler. He was born in Nür ...
, who studied with the Gabrielis; he brought the form back with him to Germany. It was in Germany where it underwent its highest development, culminating in the work of
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...
more than a hundred years later.
Baroque
The
Baroque toccata, beginning with
Girolamo Frescobaldi
Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi (; also Gerolamo, Girolimo, and Geronimo Alissandro; September 15831 March 1643) was an Italian composer and virtuoso keyboard player. Born in the Duchy of Ferrara, he was one of the most important composers of k ...
, is more sectional and increased in length, intensity and virtuosity from the Renaissance version, reaching heights of extravagance equivalent to the overwhelming detail seen in the architecture of the period. It often featured rapid runs and
arpeggios alternating with chordal or
fugal parts. Sometimes there was a lack of regular tempo and almost always an
improvisational feel.
Other Baroque composers of toccatas, in the period before Bach, include
Johann Pachelbel,
Michelangelo Rossi
Michelangelo Rossi (Michel Angelo del Violino) (ca. 1601/1602 – 1656) was an important Italian composer, violinist and organist of the Baroque era.
Rossi was born in Genoa, where he studied with his uncle, Lelio Rossi organist (from 1601 t ...
,
Johann Jakob Froberger
Johann Jakob Froberger (baptized 19 May 1616 – 7 May 1667) was a German Baroque composer, keyboard virtuoso, and organist. Among the most famous composers of the era, he was influential in developing the musical form of the suite of dances in hi ...
,
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck ( ; April or May, 1562 – 16 October 1621) was a Dutch composer, organist, and pedagogue whose work straddled the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque eras. He was among the first major keyboard compo ...
,
Alessandro Scarlatti, and
Dieterich Buxtehude
Dieterich Buxtehude (; ; born Diderik Hansen Buxtehude; c. 1637 – 9 May 1707) was a Danish organist and composer of the Baroque period, whose works are typical of the North German organ school. As a composer who worked in various vocal a ...
.
Bach's toccatas are among the most famous examples of the form, and his
Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
The Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, is a piece of organ music written, according to its oldest extant sources, by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). The piece opens with a toccata section, followed by a fugue that ends in a coda. Scho ...
is one of the most popular organ works today, although its authorship is disputed by some authorities. His toccatas for organ are improvisatory compositions, and are often followed by an independent
fugue movement. In such cases, the toccata is used in place of the usually more stable
prelude. Bach's
toccatas for harpsichord BWV 910-916 are multi-sectional works which include fugal writing, rhetorical flourishes, recitative, and aria-like movements as part of their structure.
After the Baroque
Beyond the Baroque period, toccatas are found less frequently. There are a few notable examples, however. From the
Romantic period
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
,
Robert Schumann and
Franz Liszt each wrote a piano toccata. Schumann's ambitious
Toccata in C major is considered one of the most technically difficult works in the repertoire and the foremost representative of the genre in the 1800s. The Liszt toccata is a very short and austere composition from his late period, and is practically a toccata only by name. Smaller-scale toccatas are sometimes called "toccatina": Liszt's contemporary and well-known virtuoso in his day
Charles-Valentin Alkan composed a brief toccatina as his last published work (Op. 75).
From the early
20th century,
Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...
and
Aram Khachaturian
Aram Ilyich Khachaturian (; rus, Арам Ильич Хачатурян, , ɐˈram ɨˈlʲjitɕ xətɕɪtʊˈrʲan, Ru-Aram Ilyich Khachaturian.ogg; hy, Արամ Խաչատրյան, ''Aram Xačʿatryan''; 1 May 1978) was a Soviet and Armenia ...
each wrote a toccata for solo
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
, as did French composers
Maurice Ravel as part of ''
Le Tombeau de Couperin
''Le Tombeau de Couperin'' (''The Couperin's Grave'') is a suite for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, composed between 1914 and 1917. The piece is in six movements, based on those of a traditional Baroque suite. Each movement is dedicated to the mem ...
'',
Jules Massenet,
Claude Debussy in his suite ''
Pour le piano'' and also "Jardins sous la pluie" (which is a toccata but not in name),
Pierre Sancan and
York Bowen
Edwin York Bowen (22 February 1884 – 23 November 1961) was an English composer and pianist. Bowen's musical career spanned more than fifty years during which time he wrote over 160 works. As well as being a pianist and composer, Bowen was a ...
's Toccata Op. 155.
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (born Leon Dudley Sorabji; 14 August 1892 – 15 October 1988) was an English composer, music critic, pianist and writer whose music, written over a period of seventy years, ranges from sets of miniatures to wor ...
wrote four toccatas for solo piano, while
Moises Moleiro wrote two.
George Enescu
George Enescu (; – 4 May 1955), known in France as Georges Enesco, was a Romanian composer, violinist, conductor and teacher. Regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history, Enescu is featured on the Romanian five lei.
Biogr ...
's
Piano Suite No. 2, Op. 10, opens with a toccata. The first piece'', "Sévère réprimande''" (''Severe Reprimand''), of
Erik Satie's 1912 composition
''Veritables Preludes flasques'' (pour un chien) is a toccata. The British composer
Peter Seabourne
Peter Seabourne (born 1960) is an English contemporary classical composer based in Lincolnshire, England.
Biography
Seabourne studied at Clare College, Cambridge with Robin Holloway, and University of York with David Blake.
In 1984 he was jo ...
reverted to the earlier multi-sectional manner of Bach in his piano cycle called ''
Steps Volume 6: Toccatas and Fantasias'', his six examples being designed to be interpolated between the seven Bach
toccatas for harpsichord BWV 910-916. The same composer's earlier cycle ''Steps Volume 1: An anthology'' includes a toccata movement called ''A Touch'', with reference to the Italian verb ''toccare''.
The toccata form was of great importance in the French romantic organ school, something of which
Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens laid the foundation with his ''Fanfare''. Toccatas in this style usually consist of rapid chord progressions combined with a powerful tune (often played in the pedal). The most famous examples are the ending movement of
Charles-Marie Widor
Charles-Marie-Jean-Albert Widor (21 February 1844 – 12 March 1937) was a French organist, composer and teacher of the mid-Romantic era, most notable for his ten organ symphonies. His Toccata from the fifth organ symphony has become one of th ...
's ''
Symphony No. 5'', and the Finale of
Louis Vierne
Louis Victor Jules Vierne (8 October 1870 – 2 June 1937) was a French organist and composer. As the organist of Notre-Dame de Paris from 1900 until his death, he focused on organ music, including six organ symphonies and a '' Messe solennelle ...
's ''Symphony No. 1''.
Toccatas occasionally make appearances in works for full
orchestra
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families.
There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...
; a notable example is the final movement of the
Eighth Symphony of
Ralph Vaughan Williams. It could be said that the finales of
Francis Poulenc's
Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra and
Maurice Ravel's
Piano Concerto are toccatas in all but name. The first movements of
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...
's
Piano Concerto and
Nikolai Medtner's 2nd piano concerto are toccatas. The final movement of
John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of t ...
'
Violin Concerto
A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...
is entitled "Toccare," again referring to the origins of the word toccata; and the first movement (''Schnelle halbe'') of
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the ' ...
's fifth
''Kammermusik'' (a viola concerto) is written as a toccata. Another contemporary composer who has written many toccatas is
Emma Lou Diemer. In addition to several toccatas for organ, she has written three for piano (that of 1979 is frequently played), one for flute chorus, one for violin and piano, one for solo timpani and one for six mallet percussion. Both the finales of
Samuel Barber's violin concerto and piano concerto can be described as toccatas. The Argentinian composer
Alberto Ginastera often utilizes toccatas or toccata-like forms as the finales of his works; notably in the Harp Concerto, Piano Concerto No.1, Violin Concerto, Guitar Sonata, and his Piano Sonatas. Russian
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
composer
Nikolai Kapustin
Nikolai Girshevich Kapustin (russian: link=no, Никола́й Ги́ршевич Капу́стин ; 22 November 19372 July 2020) was a Soviet composer and pianist of Russian-Jewish descent. He played with early Soviet jazz bands such as the ...
composed two toccatinas: one as part of his Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40 and another, Opus 36.
Evgeny Kissin
Evgeny Igorevich Kissin (russian: link=no, Евге́ний И́горевич Ки́син, translit=Evgénij Ígorevič Kísin, yi, link=no, יעווגעני קיסין, translit=Yevgeni Kisin; born 10 October 1971) is a Russian concert piani ...
wrote a jazz-inspired toccata as part of his ''Four Piano Pieces'', Op. 1.
Literature
Robert Browning used the motif or concept of a toccata by
Baldassare Galuppi to evoke thoughts of human transience in his poem "
A Toccata of Galuppi's
"A Toccata of Galuppi's" is a poem by Robert Browning, originally published in the 1855 collection ''Men and Women''. The title refers to the fact that the speaker is either playing or listening to a toccata by the 18th-century Venetian compos ...
" (although Galuppi did not actually write any piece with the name 'Toccata').
References
External links
Robert Browning, "A Toccata of Galuppi's" published 1855e-text
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Classical music styles