# Tocatta fans?



## DTut (Jan 2, 2011)

I've recently been discovering Bach's Tocattas for keyboard. Wow! Some of Bach's most unabashed dramatic flourishes are present here. Anyone else like the improvisatory, rhapsodic style of these 7 somewhat lesser known works or at least less discussed? 

Thanks--Dave


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Another fan here - collectively, the Toccatas are my favourite Bach keyboard works after the AoF, W-TC and the GVs.


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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

Bach Tocattas vols. I & II by Glenn Gould are really awesome recordings.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Count me in.

Here is a favorite, from Martha Argerich -- the Bach Toccata in C Minor, BWV 911






and this, too. Again, from Martha Argerich, one of my favorite pianists -- the Prokofiev Toccata in D minor, Op. 11


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

I love the Glenn Gould recordings as well, but I'd also recommend the Kenneth Gilbert ones.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

The Bach toccatas are my favourite of all his non-organ keyboard works......

But my favourite composer of toccatas is Leo Brouwer. They are often incorporated into other pieces such as his only solo sonata (the last movement) and various concertos that he has written.

Even though toccatas traditionally are keyboard works, most of the ones I really enjoy are the ones written for other instruments! Despite being a genre which is designed to show off a performer's technique, I often find that compositionally they are very very interesting pieces, nothing at all like etudes!






It would be very interesting to know....are there any really good toccatas for percussion? I am sure they would be fantastic to hear!


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## Gaspard de la Nuit (Oct 20, 2014)

I'm a fan of toccatas, I tend to like 'active' music. I think I read that the concept was pioneered by one of the Scarlattis, with the emphasis on repeated notes.



SONNET CLV said:


> Count me in.
> 
> Here is a favorite, from Martha Argerich -- the Bach Toccata in C Minor, BWV 911
> 
> ...


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> It would be very interesting to know....are there any really good toccatas for percussion? I am sure they would be fantastic to hear!


*Carlos Chavez - Toccata for Percussion Ensemble *






The following is information from http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/toccata-for-percussion-carlos-chavez :

About the Piece

*Toccata for Percussion*

Carlos Chávez

Composed: 1942
Length: c. 12 minutes
Orchestration: Percussion I (Indian drum, glockenspiel, small Indian drum); Percussion II (side drum, xylophone, Indian drum, tenor drum); Percussion III (side drum, suspended cymbal); Percussion IV (tenor drum, chimes, claves, one maraca, suspended cymbal); Percussion V (timpani, small gong); Percussion VI (bass drum, large gong)
First Los Angeles Philharmonic Performance: February 13, 1990, David Alan Miller conducting

In the 1930s, avant-garde composer John Cage approached Chávez and asked him to compose a piece for the percussion ensemble with which Cage was touring the West Coast. Chávez obliged, composing the Toccata that we hear tonight. Unfortunately, Cage's ensemble found themselves unable to play the opening section, which calls for long, sustained drum rolls by all players, and therefore never performed the piece. It was not until 1948 that the Toccata received its premiere, with members of the Orquesta Sinfónica de México (of which Chávez was founding director) as soloists. Since then, the piece has become a staple of the percussion repertoire, regularly performed on collegiate percussion ensemble programs (with the roll section intact).

Traditionally, a toccata (derived from the Italian word tocarre, or "to touch") was a virtuoso piece for a keyboard or plucked instrument, designed to showcase the player's facility. Instead of fast-moving melodic passages, Chávez's Toccata utilizes advanced rhythmic interplay and extended techniques on multiple drums and gongs. The first and last of the Toccata's three movements follow a sonata form in which Chávez explores the sound potential of the battery, writing long, layered rolls, interlocking syncopated patterns, and a section in which the players are instructed to cover the drum heads with a cloth or chamois (denoted coperto or "covered"). The slow inner movement - scored for non-pitched metallic instruments, plus glockenspiel and xylophone - is rhythmically simple, featuring small broken intervals on the two melodic instruments. In Chávez's own words, the Toccata "was written as an experiment in orthodox percussion instruments," and makes for an enduring example of melodic, thematic writing for a seemingly non-pitched instrumental family.


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## leroy (Nov 23, 2014)

Schumann's Toccata is one of my favorites


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

Oh yes, played by Jean Bernhard Pommier. One of my desert island discs. ( that would have to be a fairly large island btw....)
BWV 911 is my favourite.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I heard somewhere that toccatta means "touch." That must be a reason we like them. Maybe they're more instrument/hand oriented, or show off flourishes and gestures. I heard this version on the radio, and really enjoyed it.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I don't think there was much of a difference between a toccata and a fantasy or a prelude in the 17th century and before, and I guess there's a connection between the genre and spontaneous music making, where you didn't have to calculate things out. This is why I like free forms like these - they are to do with stream of consciousness and dreams. There's an improvised toccata by Jaroslav Tuma which really brings this out, on his second Froberger CD. 

I'll just mention that one composer whose toccatas I've come to really love is Claudio Merulo.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

leroy said:


> Schumann's Toccata is one of my favorites


There's a performance of that which actually makes it into music, by Josef Lhevinne.


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## leroy (Nov 23, 2014)

Mandryka said:


> There's a performance of that which actually makes it into music, by Josef Lhevinne.


Wow that one is very nice, thanks for mentioning it, of course now I'm probably going to listen to 22 different versions to find the one I like the best


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## Guest (Jun 3, 2015)

elgars ghost said:


> Another fan here - collectively, the Toccatas are my favourite Bach *keyboard works after the AoF*, W-TC and the GVs.


Just a point of detail, Elgar'sGhost: Bach's AoF is for unspecified instrument(s) so we shouldnb't assume it's a keyboard work. Probably.


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## DTut (Jan 2, 2011)

GioCar said:


> I love the Glenn Gould recordings as well, but I'd also recommend the Kenneth Gilbert ones.


 Piano or Harpsichord?


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

^^^^
harpsichord

Anyway for most of Bach's music I usually don't mind the instrument. He himself re-wrote his music for so many different instruments - or for no instrument at all.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

SONNET CLV said:


> *Carlos Chavez - Toccata for Percussion Ensemble *
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I enjoyed this a lot! Thank you!


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

The one by Ravel is one of my favorite pieces of music and this performance is the best I've heard.


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

I heard this piece by Walter Piston many years ago performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting in Mansfield, Massachusetts.


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