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Any advice on writing a toccata?


caters

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I have looked up what a toccata is and I get 2 main definitions. Those being:

1) Italian word for to the touch

2) A piece to demonstrate a player's level of advanced technique, usually for a keyboard instrument like the organ or the piano, but occasionally for other instruments

I then looked up how to write a toccata and I got this structure for a toccata in the North German style(so basically, Bach's style):

Free - Strict - Free - Strict - Free - Strict - Free

Where the free sections are contrapuntal but not fugal and involve more suspensions, modulations, runs, and passages, whereas the strict sections are basically miniature fugues, often with not only an exposition, but also a counter-exposition. I also on that same site was told that the different fugal sections should be in different meters(so like the first fugue may be in 4/4 whereas the second fugue may be in 3/2).

Here is the link to where I found the Bach style Toccata structure:

https://www.organduo.lt/home/how-to-compose-or-improvise-a-toccata-or-praeludium-in-the-north-german-organ-style-in-7-steps

I have been studying counterpoint among other musical topics, especially counterpoint specifically related to fugues. But I was thinking, maybe I'm being a bit too ambitious, trying to compose a 4 voice fugue. Since I don't compose for vocals, a mass is out of the question. Then I was thinking "What is easier than a fugue but still contrapuntal that isn't almost trivially easy like how a minuet is very easy?" and the first thing that came to mind was a toccata. After all, it usually precedes a fugue like here:

 

And since it has a sense of improvisation, it should be easier than a full length fugue where I not only have to write contrapuntally but also follow some strict rules, despite the fact that it does include fugal sections.  So, is there any advice you can give me as to how to write this toccata? Should I write the fugal sections first since fugues are my main weakness(I find it almost impossible to avoid parallel octaves because as a pianist I keep thinking "I should keep the tenor and bass at most a 9th apart and same for the alto and soprano. Distance between alto and tenor doesn't matter though." and once I reach an octave interval I'm like "Okay, I don't want to leap from this octave if I don't have to. But I don't feel that I am ready for a 7th interval to be included here, especially since that will resolve back to an octave." and I inadvertently get parallel octaves.

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I'm not well versed in Toccatta writing, but I've been wanting to make one as well. As I understand it, it is a balance of runs and then cadences where the music rests. I say pick a key, create some runs that you like, and then have it cadence, but then build off that until it can reach its grand finale.

Edited by EquillaBeasley
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