Toccata Marziale (ed Battisti)

Ralph Vaughan Williams

General Info

Year: 1924 / 2005
Duration: c. 4:50
Difficulty: V (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes
Cost: Score and Parts - $125.00 | Score Only - $12.95

Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute
Oboe
Bassoon I-II
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet Solo-I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Saxophone
E-flat Alto Saxophone
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Cornet I-II
B-flat Trumpet
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II (Bass Clef and Treble Clef)
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
Timpani
Percussion, including:

Bass Drum
Snare Drum
Crash Cymbals
Triangle

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

Toccata Marziale, written in 1924, was Vaughan Williams’ second work for military and is one of the most significant contributions to the wind band literature. The word “toccata” comes from the Italian “toccare,” meaning “to touch,” hence its association with the early Baroque virtuouso keyboard pieces written by Girolamo Frescobaldi and others. Toccata Marziale is a contrapunctal masterpiece for wind ensemble, in which textures are juxtaposed in massed effects with large sections of winds and brasses. A rhythmic vigor, as suggested by the title, permeates the piece, and Vaughan Williams’s brilliant scoring reveals the fundamental properties of the band’s sonority and its instrumental virtuosity and color.

- Program Note by Frederick Fennell

Vaughan Williams is most noted for his compositions for orchestra, the theater, and chamber groups, but his two works for band, the Folk Song Suite and Toccata Marziale (both published in 1924) demonstrate his unrivaled skill in scoring for the medium. Together with the two Gustav Holst suites for band, this music forms a set which has become a traditional cornerstone of concert band literature.

Composed for the commemoration of the British Empire Exhibition of 1924, the Toccata Marziale is a first-rate work by any measurement. The opening is somewhat akin to a fanfare, the movement in triads being especially effective. Its contrapunctal texture is determined by the juxtaposition of brass and reed tonal masses, and occasional lyric entrances soon give way to the primary brilliance of the basic theme. Another effective phrase is that first sung by the euphonium and then by the cornet, a broad flowing theme of wide range most effective against the constant movement of the basic theme, which is never completely lost. Skillfully woven together into a unified whole, even though complex in rhythmic and harmonic content, the piece explores the fundamental properties of the band's sonority, its virtuosity and color, and places emphasis on fine gradations between long and short, forte and piano. Of real contrast with the Folk Song Suite, Toccata Marziale has an immense noncontrived vigor perhaps unmatched in all band literature.

- Program Note from Program Notes for Band

Media

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State Ratings

Louisiana: V
Texas: V. Complete
Wisconsin: Event 3000 Concert Band Class A Standard Repertoire

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

The Ohio State University (Columbus) Symphonic Band (Scott A. Jones, conductor) – 13 February 2020
New Orleans (La.) Concert Band (Charles Taylor, conductor) – 14 April 2019
Rowan University (Glassboro, N.J.) Wind Ensemble (Joseph Higgins, conductor) – 25 October 2018
Indiana University (Bloomington) Symphonic Band (Eric M. Smedley, conductor) – 23 October 2018
United States Coast Guard Band (New London, Conn.) (Adam Williamson, conductor) – 6 May 2018
The Ohio State University (Columbus) Symphonic Band (Jeff Krubsack, conductor) – 6 October 2016
College of Saint Rose (Albany, N.Y.) Wind Ensemble - 4 May 2014

Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music

Folk Songs from Somerset (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
My Bonny Boy (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
Seventeen Come Sunday (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)

All Wind Works

Concerto for Bass Tuba (arr. Wick and Chambers) (1954/1992)
Concerto Grosso (arr. Grechesky) (1924)
Concerto in F minor for Tuba and Winds (arr. Hare) (1954/1992)
England's Pleasant Land (arr. Noble) (1938/2017)
English Folk Song Suite (1924)
English Folk Song Suite (arr. Villanueva) (1924/)
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (arr. Bocook) (1910/2006)
Fantasia on Greensleeves (arr. Wagner) (1934/2011)
Five English Folk Songs (arr. Feldman) (1913/2009)
Five Variants of "Dives and Lazarus" (arr. Gregson) (1939/2004)
Flourish for Glorious John (or. Boyd) (1957/1998)
Flourish for Wind Band (1939)
Folk Songs from Somerset (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
Golden Vanity, The (arr. Wagner) (1933/2009)
I Vow to Thee, My Country (as setter; ed. Grechesky) (1921/1988)
Lark Ascending, The (tr. Silvester) (1914/1925/2003)
Linden Lea (arr. Wagner) (1902/2013)
Linden Lea (arr. Stout) (1902/1984)
The Lowlands of Scotland (arr. Daehn) (1912/2006)
March Past of the Kitchen Utensils (arr. Erwin) (1909/2010)
My Bonny Boy (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
Norfolk Rhapsody (tr. Robert O'Brien) (1905)
Overture to "The Wasps" (tr. Frank Hudson) (1909)
Prelude, 49th Parallel (arr. van der Beek) (1960/2018)
Prelude: 49th Parallel (arr. Noble) (1941/2014)
Prelude: 49th Parallel (arr. Winkler) (1941/1960)
Prelude from "49th Parallel" (tr. Osmon) (1941/1960/1987/2002)
Prelude on Three Welsh Hymn Tunes (arr. Curnow) (1954/1982)
Prelude: The New Commonwealth (arr. Grauer) (1940/2006)
A Ralph Vaughan Williams Portrait (arr. Wagner) (2018)
Rhosymedre (tr. Beeler) (1920/1972)
Rhosymedre (tr. Johnston) (1920/2011)
Rhosymedre (tr. Baldwin) (1920/)
Running Set, The (tr. Silvester) (1933)
Scherzo alla Marcia (1956)
Sea Songs (1925)
Sea Songs (arr. Longfield) (1925/2006)
Seventeen Come Sunday (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
Sine Nomine (arr. Reed) (1976)
Sine Nomine (arr. Houseknecht) (1906/1960)
Songs of Travel (arr. Patterson) (1901-4)
Three Studies in English Folk Song (arr. Harbinson) (1927/1999/2003)
Toccata Marziale (1924)
Toccata Marziale (ed Battisti) (ed. Battisti) (1924/2005)
Variations for Wind Band (trans. Hunsberger) (1957/1988/1997)
Vaughan Williams Christmas, A (arr. Wagner) (1999)
Wassail (arr. Smith)

Resources

Smith, Norman E. (2002). Program Notes for Band. Chicago: GIA Publications, pp. 606.
Vaughan Williams, R.; Battisti, F. (2005). Toccata Marziale [score]. Boosey & Hawkes: New York.