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| Schumann’s Toccata in C Major was published in 1834, the year in which he was deeply engrossed in launching the seminal issues of Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik. That year and continuing through 1838, Schumann produced the core of his most successful piano works (such as Carnaval, Kreisleriana, and the Symphonic etudes). The Toccata, however, actually dates from several years earlier - 1829-30 to be exact, placing it in a period when Schumann favored virtuosity over poetry. The spark that ignited his great creative achievements in the compositions of 1834 and beyond had not yet been lit. It would be a disservice to look at the Toccata in light of Schumann’s later achievements, for he was only 19 years old when he wrote this piece. While dividing his time between study of music and law at Heidelberg University, Schumann had come under the spell Ignaz Moscheles, one of the most famous “finger jockeys” of that era. And like Moscheles, Schumann’s first published and unpublished compositions are technical showpieces, often in variation form, and filled with etude-like figurations. The Toccata belongs to that aesthetic. The difficulties for the performer are numerous, and like a long history of works in the same genre - toccata comes from the Italian “to touch” - Schumann’s work samples almost every technical feat the pianist’s two hands are capable of performing. For the listener the difficulties are fewer but not less daunting. Apart from a brief and hardly memorable tune in the second key (G major), the Toccata is essentially devoid of melodic interest. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that the ear will have to search elsewhere for something upon which to get its bearings. Harmony, texture, and form are likely substitutes for melodic engagement. The former offers little guidance, however, for Schumann writes in a very chromatic manner with neighboring tones filling in all the gaps between more structural chord tones. Thus texture comes to the foreground and becomes almost overwhelming at times. As for form, the Toccata represents Schumann’s first essay in sonata-allegro design that is at the core of the classical style. Some of piece’s more progressive elements, apart from sheer difficulty, are rhythmic complexity and a shifting sense of meter during the recapitulation and coda. Those features derive from Schumann’s guiding vision of texture and technique. In subsequent years he learned better how to merge an interest in virtuosity and display with more substantive and original melodic material, making works that are still landmarks in the concert repertory. In the Toccata it is virtuosity that carries the day. I hope purists will forgive my assessment, but this is musical performance intended to be seen as much as to be heard.
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