toccata

views updated May 18 2018

toccata (It.). Touched. One of oldest names for kbd. piece (org., hpd., etc.), orig. a short movt., often merely a prelude, in which the player's ‘touch’ was displayed through rapidity and delicacy. But note that Monteverdi's first opera Orfeo, 1607, begins with a Toccata for baroque tpts. Later the toccata form was combined with a ricercare, and Bach wrote several toccatas and fugues. Bach also comp. hpd. toccatas in several movts. Several 20th-cent. composers have used the term toccata for movts. of orch. works, e.g. Vaughan Williams for 1st movt of pf. conc. and 4th movt. of 8th Sym. First printed source for use of word is G. A. Casteliono's Intabolatura de leuto de diversi autori (1536). Earliest printed keyboard toccatas were by S. Bertoldo (1591).

toccata

views updated Jun 08 2018

toc·ca·ta / təˈkätə/ • n. a musical composition for a keyboard instrument designed to exhibit the performer's touch and technique.

toccata

views updated May 21 2018

toccata (mus.) piece for keyboard instruments intended to exhibit touch and technique. XVIII. — It., sb. use of fem. pp. of toccare TOUCH.