Dictionary:

toccata

  (tə-kä'tə)

A virtuoso composition, usually for the organ or another keyboard instrument, in free style with brilliant passagework.

[Italian, from feminine past participle of toccare, to touch, from Vulgar Latin *toccāre.]

A keyboard piece, often free in form, intended primarily for ‘touching’ the keyboard, i.e. for displaying dexterity. The term has also been applied to pieces for other instruments (e.g. the opening fanfare of Monteverdi's Orfeo).

The toccata had antecedents in the prelude and ricercare. The earliest printed toccatas are those of Bertoldo (1591) and Diruta (Il transilvano, 1593, including some by A. and G. Gabrieli). Most are in a chordal style with brilliant runs. Merulo's (1598 and 1604) are more sectional, fugal and chordal passages alternating with brilliant passage-work. In Frescobaldi's toccatas the contrasts are more violent and the passage-work more complex; his second book (1627) includes two lengthy toccatas for the Elevation. His followers include M. Rossi, Pasquini and Zipoli, and his style was transmitted to Austria by Froberger, who to some extent incorporated in his toccatas the principle of the variation canzona or capriccio. The Austrian and south German tradition was continued by such composers as Kerll and Georg Muffat.

In the Netherlands, Sweelinck took A. and G. Gabrieli as models for his toccatas, whose chief characteristic is rhythmic regularity. His successors include Scheidt, Scheidemann and later Reincken and Buxtehude, with whom the toccata became a large-scale work in which rhapsodic and fugal sections alternated.

In Italy A. Scarlatti's multi-sectional harpsichord toccatas were a departure, incorporating fugue, recitative and variations. They influenced Handel's keyboard style and also Bach's in such works as the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue. Bach's harpsichord toccatas are large-scale works of individual design, incorporating fugal movements. His organ toccatas are either works in which the toccata and fugal elements are closely linked, as with Buxtehude, or independent movements preceding a fugue (e.g. bwv 540). The justification for the title here is the largely continuous semiquaver/16th-note movement, a feature of the modern toccata, in which rhapsodic and fugal elements are largely abandoned. Among the best-known examples for piano are those of Schumann (op.7), Debussy (in Pour le piano), Ravel (in Le tombeau de Couperin) and Prokofiev (op.11).

Tutor's tip: This word was used in the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee finals.

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - (mus.) toccata

Nederlands (Dutch)
toccata (muziekcompositie)

Français (French)
n. - toccata

Deutsch (German)
n. - (mus.) Tokkata

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (μουσ.) τοκάτα

Italiano (Italian)
toccata

Português (Portuguese)
n. - tocata (f)

Русский (Russian)
(муз.) токката

Español (Spanish)
n. - tocata

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - toccata (mus.)

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
托卡他曲

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 托卡他曲

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 토카타 (빠른 즉흥곡 풍의 악곡)

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - トッカータ

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مقطوعه موسيقيه معدة لأظهارألبراعه في ألعزف على ألبيان أو ألأرغن, ألتوكاته‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮יצירה מוסיקלית שתכליתה להציג את יכולת הנגינה של מבצעה‬

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