Toccata in D (for piano)

[Charles Greco]

Just posted my Toccata in D in the Piano Music Composers group Comment Wall. Began writing this little toccata last year and finally got back to finishing it. (I noticed after posting, it seems not to show up in any lists anywhere.)

[Richard Vaughan]

This is technically way beyond my piano abilities. I would suggest a Martha Argerich or Horowitz however I enjoyed the rhythmic feel particularly at page 4.  I get movement forward from the rhythm but not from the progression of the harmony like I do for example from the last movement of a piece like Le tombeau de couperin. I know I am not comparing like with like however the strength of your ideas makes you want to feel like your have harmonically been somewhere and then either come back or found yourself somewhere else. Hope this makes sense Charles. Best wishes.

[Amit Mish'an]

Where is it? where is the toccata? I don't see any file...

[Charles Greco]

It is in Groups > Piano Music Composers > Comment Wall

Amit Mish'an said:

Where is it? where is the toccata? I don't see any file...

[David Stowell]

Do you have a copy of the score with the fingering you envisage?

 

 

[Charles Greco]

@ Richard

Thanks so much for your comments. This toccata is not so much a musical journey as it is an excursion (digression). The harmonic progression intentionally is constantly interrupted with repetition, in development of the toccata.

 

@ David

I never include suggested fingering in any of my scores (except, occasionally, for exercise pieces or studies). Where the chord stems are connected to the same beam group, the lower staff is obviously played by the left hand. Thus the alternating 16ths as written become 8ths per hand. Admittedly this requires considerable hand movement occasionally. But I think the toccata (to touch) should be challenging as it implies an exhibiting technique sometimes pyrotechnical (to my reasoning anyway). Thanks for listening and your query.

[David Stowell]

Ray

I was trying to be polite with my question about fingering.  When I glanced at the score there were bits that looked very awkward, if not impossible at the metronome marking of crotchet (quarter) = 126 (i.e. each bar takes just 2 seconds)

 

A live performance would, of course, be preferable.

 

[Johan Roeraade]

Indeed a piece which demands a lot from a pianist, but not unplayable.  It reminds me somehow of Widor´s toccata (one of my absolute favorite organ pieces), and there are also sometimes elements of pre-war jazz in it, as used by for example by Fats Waller (in any case, there are certainly “a handful of keys” !)

Nice rhythmic structure. The repeats don´t bother me at all, I agree that this is part of the overall layout. But I have problems with some of the harmonic transitions, particulary at 14-15 sec. (when you make the switch to E-major), and at 28-30 sec (at the end of page 3), The switches at 1.33 (page 6) and 1.44 (at the bottom of page 7) are the real nice ones! Then, I wonder how you want to play the poco rubato at page 6 (or did I miss something?) Anyway Charles, a nice piece of work.
Regards, Johan 

[Johan Roeraade]

Raymond Kemp said:

David,

I obviously have a problem with being polite so I wasn't speaking for you.

Perhaps Johan could play this piece for Charles and we may enjoy both composition and skill of both.

David Stowell said:

Ray

I was trying to be polite with my question about fingering.  When I glanced at the score there were bits that looked very awkward, if not impossible at the metronome marking of crotchet (quarter) = 126 (i.e. each bar takes just 2 seconds)

 

A live performance would, of course, be preferable.

 

[Johan Roeraade]

Well Raymond, I don´t think I would do a good job here. What I meant to say was that the piece seems playable to me, but it would require a very skilled pianist ( and I am not  in this category ) . I definitely eagree with you, that a life performance is  preferable, but my personal experience has been that it is difficult to get a  good pianist to play my compositions. They are usually very occupied (travelling or preparing their next recital), or they are simply not interested. Therefore, we still require midi playbacks. But it requires a lot of work in adjusting the expression levels to get a reasonable result.