toccata (It.). Touched. One of oldest names for kbd. piece (org., hpd., etc.), orig. a short movt., often merely a prelude, in which the player's ‘touch’ was displayed through rapidity and delicacy. But note that Monteverdi's first opera Orfeo, 1607, begins with a Toccata for baroque tpts. Later the toccata form was combined with a ricercare, and Bach wrote several toccatas and fugues. Bach also comp. hpd. toccatas in several movts. Several 20th-cent. composers have used the term toccata for movts. of orch. works, e.g. Vaughan Williams for 1st movt of pf. conc. and 4th movt. of 8th Sym. First printed source for use of word is G. A. Casteliono's Intabolatura de leuto de diversi autori (1536). Earliest printed keyboard toccatas were by S. Bertoldo (1591).

toc·ca·ta / təˈkätə/ • n. a musical composition for a keyboard instrument designed to exhibit the performer's touch and technique.

toccata (mus.) piece for keyboard instruments intended to exhibit touch and technique. XVIII. — It., sb. use of fem. pp. of toccare TOUCH.