Toccata arrangement of the J.S. Bach Toccata, BWV 565, on their album Sky 2, featuring keyboardist Francis Monkman. Robert Browning used the motif or concept of a toccata by Baldassare Galuppi to evoke thoughts of human transience in his poem "A Toccata of Galuppi's" (although Galuppi did not actually write any piece with the name '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
Toccata for Percussion Instruments (Chávez) word "toccata" in its original sense, using its root meaning of "toccare", or "to touch", which he used to display the various touches an artist can give a performance, rather the different lyrical shades. For the U.S premier, during which the composer himself conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chávez wrote in the program notes that "The Toccata was written as an experiment in orthodox percussion instruments – those used regularly in symphony orchestras, that is, avoiding the exotic and the picturesque. Therefore it relies on its purely musical expression and formalistic structure." The first and last movements of the three-movement