As I understand it, the Toccata started life as a freestanding work, in North Italy, late 16th century, took the place of the preludium in the services of the Catholic and Lutheran Mass. Gradually, in Germany it acquired a complementary fugue, developing into a single rather than sectional movement, such as to be found in Bach's Toccatas in F BWV 540 and D minor 'Dorian' BWV 538.

Over time the movement then seems to have switched to take the place of the Finale, notably in French organ suites/symphonies.

Is this pretty much correct?

Was Widor the first to place the Toccata at the end of a work rather than at the beginning? Boellmann perhaps?

Is the Toccata now, i.e. in contemporary works, considered to be a freestanding movement again?

There is much truth in what you have said. I remember the first time I came across the Toccatas of Frescobaldi and the like to see where Bach's model's may have originated. They are most enlightening.

Widor may have been the first to actually call the fast moving pieces 'Toccata', I have no proof of that, but when looks at some of the last movement of some of the Guilmant sonatas, No.1 particularly, its not hard to imagine them being titled 'Toccata', and I don't think we would play them any differently if they were named that. Interesting to note how many people play the Widor at breakneck speed these days when many of the historical recordings (performers who could possibly have been taught by Widor etc.) play them a little slower and with a little more majesty. One must remember that our modern super fast and light electric actions were not whet these pieces were written for. Try coupling a couple of heavyish manual actions and playing at those speeds!

Absolutely right Guilmant. Shortly after I had my first organists post (at age 15) I had to play it for a wedding , on a tracker action organ (NP05055) with Swell reeds (well two of them and a mixture) coupled to Great! It wasnt exactly the organ best suited for that piece. As its wasnt a large church, I only had to play 2-3 mins of it, the church had cleared. (Unless my playing was the cause). However I don't like it too fast even now

Thanks for the history lesson.

What you don't mention is that in the piano literature in the Romantic era and later, the Toccata has become a particular style of virtuoso show-off piece, often characterised by the insistent rhythm and texture created by rapid alternation of a narrow interval and a wide one in the same hand.

[Typical examples are Schumann's Toccata (Op. 7), Prokofiev's Toccata, the Toccata from Ravel's "Tombeau de Couperin", the third of Poulenc's "Trois Pieces" and (though it is not labelled as a Toccata) Chopin's Etude Op. 10 No. 7]

Much like that of Mulet's Carillon Sortie.

So, has the Toccata now reverted to being a piece in its own right, now that the Suite is a relatively rarely produced form?

The Toccata is indeed a 'showing off' piece, (from the Italian 'toccare' - to touch), intended to show off the ability of the player, and perhaps the instrument.

But has the Toccata reverted to being a piece in it's own right? Sadly I think it has; and not necessarily for the right reasons.

I say this because for many people, there are only two pieces of organ music - the Toccata from Widor’s Symphony No 5, and the Bach D minor Toccata and Fugue. Such has become the popularity of these works on mainstream classical music schedules that one could be forgiven for thinking that no other organ music existed!

The same could be said for 'Adagios', the same handful of which seem to account for about 80% of the air time on Classic FM; the remainder being made up of the same few Finale's, Toccata’s and the occasional Overtures played over and over again. Indeed, I am beginning to think that the Widor Toccata may even have it’s own daily time slot just after lunch!

However, one thing is for sure: listeners are being deprived of some wonderful music of all genres simply because nothing else ever gets onto the playlists. For example, how often is the wonderful Adagio from Widor's 5th been played on Classic FM? (Perhaps that is a good thing, as I might have become tired of it by now.)

So, coming back to the original question: yes, I think the Toccata has reverted to being a piece in it’s own right, if for no other reason than audiences expect to hear them in our modern 'soundbite' age, but are not bothered about the surrounding paraphernalia.

SB

In all probability not by Bach originally or even for the organ if recent scholarship is to be believed, and there is much merit in the arguments, I've seen them.

For violin presumably?

I've heard a rendition by Maxim Vengerov which seemed eminently plausible.

Yes, indeed, and pretty convincing I thought. It's so unlike anything else by JSB in style, that I'm inclined to err on the side of caution when deciding who it was by.

This is the usual explanation of the word, but I don't think it really holds true of the earlier toccatas. Early Italianate toccatas are not really all that flashy and trying to turn them into virtuoso pieces usually only destroys them. Some can even be quite gentle, if you want to play them that way. A more credible interpretation that matches the pieces better is to interpret toccare as exploring or trying out of the keyboard, i.e. as a quasi-improvisatory form. If you imagine someone sitting down at a keyboard and starting (gently, perhaps) to explore its possibilities and then perhaps working up to runs or other figurations as the muse takes him (or her), I think you'll have the right idea. Even in Bach's time the terms Praeludium, Fantasia and Toccata were pretty much interchangeable (so Peter Williams tells us).

As for BWV 565, it was Peter Williams who first suggested that it might originally have been for violin, but I can't help wondering about whether it would suit to the viola da gamba or cello (I don't play these instruments, so can't tell). At any rate, all that tedious, second-rate, note-spinning echo stuff in the fugue certainly suggests a stringed instrument to me, though I believe the lute has been suggested as another possibility. Whatever, although the toccata is undeniably very effective on the organ, I'm inclined to think that is more by luck than by design. The fugue waffles around vacuously without any real musical argument and really hasn't got much to commend it as a composition. Strong on effect; sterile in content. As you've guessed, I don't like it!

That piece of Bach was originally written as a six part vocal piece with a mobile phone accompaniment and was called Deconstructing Johann

When I've been asked to play, 'the Bach Toccata,' I go for the 'Dorian'