Program Notes

Toccata

Girolamo Frescobaldi, composer

Girolamo Frescobaldi was the preeminent organist of the first half of the seventeenth century. He was the organist at St. Peter’s in Rome from 1608 until his death in 1648, except between 1628 and 1633 when he was court organist in Florence. Toccata, originally written for organ, was essentially a solo piece that was improvised. The name "toccata" indicates that it was a "touch piece" characterized by rhapsodic sections with sustained chords, scale passages, and broken figuration. Toccata consists of three sections with tempos of slow, fast, and slow. The work closes with a fast coda.

—Band Music Notes

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