Toccata Toccata Toccata (from Italian "toccare", literally, "to touch") is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers. Less frequently, the name is applied to works for multiple instruments (the opening of Claudio Monteverdi's opera "L'Orfeo" being a notable example). The form first appeared in the late Renaissance period. It originated in northern Italy. Several publications of the 1590s include toccatas, by composers such as Claudio Merulo, Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli,
Toccata for Percussion Instruments (Chávez) rhythm and color, "creating an original climate of intense attractiveness and achieving great diversity of accents, sounds, and nuances." Toccata for Percussion Instruments was used as music accompaniment for the experimental film See Saw Seams by Stan Vanderbeek. Toccata for Percussion Instruments (Chávez) The Toccata for Percussion Instruments (1942), was written by the twentieth-century Mexican composer Carlos Chávez. It is among his most popular compositions. The composition is written for six musicians playing a number of percussion instruments. Chávez was approached in the 1930s by the avant-garde composer John Cage, who asked whether Chávez could compose a piece for the