toccata

American  

[tuh-kah-tuh, tawk-kah-tah] / təˈkɑ tə, tɔkˈkɑ tɑ /

noun

Music.

plural

toccatas, toccate

1. a composition in the style of an improvisation, for the piano, organ, or other keyboard instrument, intended to exhibit the player's technique.

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toccata British  

/ təˈkɑːtə /

noun

1. a rapid keyboard composition for organ, harpsichord, etc, dating from the baroque period, usually in a rhythmically free style

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Etymology

Origin of toccata

1715–25; < Italian: “touched,” feminine past participle of toccare touch

Example Sentences

Adams joked in a conversation with the pianist Sarah Cahill before the premiere that “I Still Dance” is really a toccata with a disco beat.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 20, 2019

“The BBC would come by and see what’s going on with the student body. I’d written a toccata in the style of Khachaturian, and they said, ‘Oh really?

From The New Yorker • May 3, 2017

The Sweelinck pieces, a toccata and the “Fantasia chromatica,” were luminous, their wandering into distant keys tastefully pointed up, but unmistakable.

From Washington Post • Jan. 15, 2017

In this bright, fidgety orchestral version the music hovers somewhere between a perpetual-motion toccata and country-fiddle hoedown, though a pensive middle section alters the mood for a while.

From New York Times • Sep. 22, 2016

In the latter Bach sometimes exhibits all the objectivity of the study or toccata, and often wears his heart in full view.

From Chopin : the Man and His Music by Huneker, James