Johann Sebastian Bach
Toccatas

About Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccatas

The origin of the toccata can be traced back to 16th-century Italian lute music. Later, the term was used to describe virtuoso keyboard pieces involving runs and arpeggios; and by the time of Bach, the North German toccata had come to encompass fugal movements, within a generally free structure. Bach did not conceive the Toccatas as a set, as opposed to his better-known keyboard works such as The Well-Tempered Clavier, Inventions, Sinfonias, French and English Suites etc. The collection of seven Toccatas – as they usually appear today – was not established until well into the 20th century.

In Bach’s Toccatas we find a succession of different sections, sometimes connected by free transitions, sometimes more fully separated in ‘movements’. Each one explores a wide range of emotions, and the dramatic turns are emphasized by the use of different metres, rhythms and figurations in new sections.