Music is a great way of self-expression, creativity, which is not given to everyone, but each of us certainly wants to enjoy music. What does “toccata” mean and why is this word worth even to music listeners, amateur non-professionals, you will learn by reading this article.
"Piano" vocabulary
Once upon a time, at the time of composers such as Mendelssohn, Lebussy and Schumann, the meaning of the word “toccata” meant any piece of music created for the piano, and indeed any keyboard instrument. A characteristic feature of toccata is the dynamism of music, the clarity of the play of sounds, short notes. For piano and organ music, classical toccata is of great importance. What is also important - the sequence of changing the toccata sound is either in bass or in treble clef. Toccata in many pieces sounds like a playful, easy introduction, a backstory to the main theme of a piece of music. Indicative of the sound is the original translation of the word toccata from the Italian language, which means “touch”, “push”.
Game technique
On the sheet of music the toccata is indicated by dots above the notes; such notes are played intermittently, clearly, but at the same time with light “strokes”. In this case, the hand should not be opened too high from the keys, because this slows down the dynamics of the game. Playing "toccata", you can not "get stuck" in the sound, it is important to maintain discontinuity. Often the orchestral toccata denotes punches, peals of fanfare of wind and percussion (low percussion - such as timpani) instruments.
Very often you can hear the orchestral performance of toccata in modern operas and ballet productions, although this trend arose for the first time in the distant Renaissance era.
Joking music
Toccata is perhaps the most playful form of a piece of music or part of it; you can hear it in parody lines and roll calls in operas, musical humors.
The nature of its sound can be compared to scherzo - the same mischievous and playful music that can instantly lift your spirits and create a special atmosphere of a festive syur.
Serious genre
Once upon a time, the impetuous motifs of toccata, this impetuous and virtuoso music, were an introduction to the music played at church ceremonies of the predominantly Catholic church. Toccata discovered polyphonic choral works, portended the roll call of the widest range of heroes of a musical work.
Musical texture
Toccata is performed in a very clear technique, which not every musician can achieve. Of the great composers, Johann Sebastian Bach was also famous for his talent intermittently, but at the same time with a different degree of pressure on the keys to play a magnificent toccata, in which each emphasis is in place.
Toccata is a work that requires clarity of sound. Chords, high passages - all these are characteristic elements of the genre. Polyphonic motifs, as mentioned earlier, are a huge decoration of any toccata, especially when it comes to choral performance.
Etude and Toccata
At that time, when such great composers, etudes, such as Czerny and Schumann, performed, etudes and toccata became very close in their stylistic coloring. To this day, Cherni's sketches are used in conservatories and music schools in order to educate young musicians to use the entire palette of shades in music, in order to increase finger fluency and technical performance.
Historical reference
Concluding the conversation about what is toccata, it is impossible not to mention the historical stages of the formation of this music. Toccata originated in the late Renaissance in northern Italy. Musical works of the 1590s contained toccat elements.
The Baroque era in music is characterized by special extravagance, from the Renaissance in it remained polyphony and counter-puncture. Fugue is the main musical form of this era. However, the “musicality” of the era was rapidly declining, the role of vocal performance was growing.
Fugues, arias got their golden age in music. So, the baroque toccata became much longer than the toccata of the Renaissance, but at the same time retained its dynamism and required a certain virtuosity from the performer.
You can compare the music of that time only with architecture, which is just as unusual and abundant. Almost always, the baroque toccata gives the impression of pure improvisation, the works of this genre were so polysyllabic during the Baroque period.
After the end of the Baroque period, toccata was less and less found in music. Composers of the subsequent era of Romanticism nevertheless turned to the stylistic form of toccata, for example, the previously mentioned Schumann was very fond of the form of toccata.
Liszt is another performer of that period. He used toccata as a leading stylistic detail in his famous waltzes.
Schumann's works are considered the most complex from a technical point of view, while Liszt's toccata is always a short part of the composition, which gradually lost its true meaning in the work of this composer.
In the 20th century, Prokofiev also revived the fashion for this musical form, including it in some works, but also not for long.
Toccats have been written for the organ for some time. Now young performers and composers hone their skills with this form. Toccata allows you to increase the pace of the game and create a playful musical mood, without thereby adding to the semantic load of the work.