A toccata (from the Italian toccare — “to touch”) is a piece for keyboard instruments built on fast, continuous, often passage-like motion. Its aim is to show the performer's brilliant technique, freedom, and improvisatory scope — the “flight of the fingers” across the keyboard.
The heyday of the toccata was the Baroque. The unsurpassed master of the genre was J.S. Bach — his organ toccatas (such as the famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor) astonish with their grandeur and drama. Toccatas were often paired with a fugue, creating a contrast between the free, elemental toccata and the strictly ordered fugue. The genre was not forgotten later — brilliant toccatas were written by Schumann, Debussy, and others. The toccata is a musical firework, a hymn to virtuosity and the joy of motion.
