Toccata and toccata style in Yurii Reshetar’s piano works
Authors: Bondarenko Olena 
Published: March 2021

Background. Changes in the conditions of human existence have sharpened our sense of time. Today’s cultural space has adapted our perception of art to the simultaneous existence in “offline” and “online” forms. This new reality needs its artistic embodiment. When a contemporary composer, whose name has not yet gained widespread recognition, succeeds in accomplishing such a task, it demonstrates the opening of a new page in national art and becomes an interesting and significant event. Such an event is piano music of our contemporary Yurii Reshetar, which has not yet become the subject of scientific comprehension. The research methodology. The study is based on a synthesis of traditional musicological (genre-stylistic and comparative analysis) and modern, interpretive approaches, which are based on a question about the factors that determined the basic components of the author’s vision. Results. Yurii Reshetar is a composer whose work is endowed with a sharp sense of beauty and uniqueness of musical language. The musical genres to which Yu. Reshetar refers belong to the classical treasury, but in the author’s interpretation they acquire a new sound. Yu. Reshetar has a unique biography. He got into the composition at the age of 30. Lack of professional education did not hinder the dynamic growth and acquisition of true compositional skill. An interested appeal to early genres is seen in the large creative heritage of the composer. Toccata, which has been included by the author in the “16 Concert Etudes” collection, is one of the many works of the composer, which embodied the ideas of movement and time. Toccata style can be found in his numerous works: in “16 Concert Etudes” cycle, in Sonata for piano in E minor, in Gigue from the Suite for Piano. Toccata was created on October 17, 2017, it has a program content, which the author designates with the words “Purifying by fire”. To realize the chosen artistic content, the composer aptly chooses a form, which is unusual for toccata. This is an atypical rondo: A B A В1 A, where the main theme (the theme of “fire”) is a refrain, and the theme of B and B1 is associated with the changing of spirit state of man under the influence of fire. The texture formula of the main theme of toccata by repetitions and leaps of the main sound up and down the octave, resembles the unexpected flashes of flames. Toccata by Yu. Reshetar is written in E flat minor. Performing of a virtuoso work on black keys has its own peculiarities: even if a performer is familiar with the pianistic difficulties, this additional difficulty encourages special concentration and control over hand coordination, to sharpening of the rationalization of movements and accuracy of finger movements. The standard of Toccata performance is its author’s interpretation, which is publicly available on the YouTube channel. The performance impresses with a balance between the clear logic of building the form and the artistic richness of the music. Toccata’s music requires from the performer versatility of interpretation: of the artistic sense, understanding of the stylistic synthesis, creation of a modern image of the piano sound and the novelty of tonal-harmonic colors, developed metro-rhythmic sense, the ability to express the individuality. But the pianistic convenience of textural presentation is evidence of the author’s natural feeling the laws of piano performance. Such impressions were shared by pianist Anastasia Zakharchenko, who performed Toccata during a competition held at the Lviv National Musical Academy named after Mykola Lysenko in December 2017. The toccata concept has also found its artistic embodiment in other works of the composer. Energy of modernity reflected in the intention of the directed ostinato movement is also skillfully embodied by Yu. Reshetar in the “16 Concert Etudes” cycle op. 38 (21.09.2019). Each of etudes is a pearl that reveals the harmonious combination of the uniqueness of the author’s stylistic qualities, the modernity of artistic thinking and the unexpected originality of texture finds. The capriciousness of figurative characteristics is embodied with such imagination and inventiveness that even a high level of technical complexity will not be an obstacle for the enthusiastic mastering of this cycle by performers. “Concert style” underlined by the author is achieved through the using of various composing methods and techniques, among which the most weight is the toccata style. The refined aesthetics of baroque music acquires its charming and convincing embodiment in Yu. Reshetar’s “Barogue Suite for Piano”. The suite consists of 7 pieces, each of which is a traditional part of the suite cycle of that era: Allemanda, Courante, Menuet, Aria, Gavotte, Sarabande, Gigue. The final piece of the cycle unobtrusively embodies the toccata’s principle of the ostinato movement, which is elegantly combined with the characteristic dance metro-rhythmic and ornamentation-intonational features of the baroque gigue. The refined author’s stylization is full of composer’s respect and special honoring of old traditions. Conclusions. Numerous Yu. Reshetar’s appeals to toccata style as to the embodiment of the image of continuous movement as a symbol of time and creative activity of a man emphasize that toccata and toccata style became one of the artistic preferences of the composer and the characteristic of his style. Every example of toccata style in the above-mentioned piano works by Yu. Reshetar becomes a real discovery. The composer proves to the listeners of his works that the toccata code has preserved endless prospect for its development and renewal.