Toccatina

Helmut Lachenmann wrote his Toccatina for the volume “Studien zum Spielen Neuer Musik für Violine” (EB 8356) edited by Igor Ozim and published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1986. No one could foresee back then that this “Etude for violin solo” would take on an active life of its own. The piece was first seen as a model of new string techniques, as David Alberman explained in his 1998 essay “Beyond the Conventional,” published in the journal “The Strad.” But in the meantime, Lachenmann’s “Toccatina,” which truly does abound in unusual techniques, appears increasingly often on the programs of international festivals of contemporary music. This does justice to the work, which is, in effect, a delicate, fragile and introverted recital piece. Its title contains the word “toccare” (Italian for “to touch”); the composer took this definition literally and transposed it impressively into his piece.