Re[2]: GG: Italian Concerto

[mwilliamson@alston.com]

     This is an excellent point you make about the toccatas.  
     They belong generally to the very broad class of 
     "through-composed" pieces:  pieces that do not follow any 
     prescribed form but are simply written as the composer 
     pleases.  The word "toccata" means "to touch" so it 
     particularly refers to any keyboard piece written in an 
     improvisatory style or any other instrumental piece written 
     in the style of keyboard improvisation.  I think you're 
     probably right that toccatas do not currently enjoy the 
     popularity of other Bachworks, probably because they are not 
     usually as heavily contrapuntal.  But when you consider the 
     value that 17th and 18th century musicians placed on 
     improvisation and the improvisatory style, you have to agree 
     that these are very, very important works . . .


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: GG: Italian Concerto
Author:  "K. Berry" <kb@cs.umb.edu> at internet
Date:    3/6/97 11:59 AM


    that I associate with early pieces like the D-major toccata.
     
I love the D major toccata.  In fact, that was the piece that first got 
me interested in Gould and Bach keyboard music :-).
     
It seems hardly anyone else in the world really likes the toccatas, 
Gould certainly never expressed any enthusiasm for them (although, no 
surprise to anyone on this list, his renditions seem about a million 
times better than anyone else's to me :-).  Personally, I find them to 
be some of the most emotional works Bach ever wrote ...
     
K