DORSET COMPOSER - RICK BIRLEY
  • HOME [and contact form]
  • CONCERT
  • Rick Birley biography
  • Compositions [Orchestral works]
    • Peterloo
    • Bishops & Clerks >
      • The Flow
      • These Distracted Times
      • The Rechabite
      • Sunset Island
    • Chamber Symphony [No.1] in Five Movements
    • Symphony No.2 ["little bird"]
    • Hebrew Songs of Love, Faith & Survival
    • Piano Concerto
    • Symphonic Suite for Piano & Orchestra
    • Tanquam Sponsus [piano & orchestra]
    • Spanish Folksongs
    • Chansons de France
    • A Dorset Rhapsody
    • Call to Remembrance - a meditation on The Last Post
    • Nursery Rhymes Kaleidoscope
    • Latin Primer
    • Olympian Glories
    • Sar-planina - a Macedonian folksong
    • Marat/Sade Suite >
      • Marat/Sade notes
    • Maverick
    • Variations on a Plainsong
    • Eight Orchestral Studies
    • Christmas Exultation
    • Romney Facets
    • A Little English Folksong Suite/ The Ploughboy
    • English Folksong Suite No.2
    • Movement for String Orchestra "magnas inter opes inops"
    • Lord of the Dance
    • Sea Song
    • Greensleeves
  • Piano Music (solo & 2-piano)
    • Piano Sonata
    • Toccata: "On the Edge"
    • March Wind
    • Donegal - a choral fantasy transcribed for piano
    • Butterfly in the Breeze
    • Variations on a Plainsong - piano transcription
    • Ten Preludes for Piano
    • Carol Preludes [piano]
    • Salutation Carol Prelude [piano]
    • Preludes [piano] >
      • 3 Preludes for Piano
    • Papillons
    • Spanish Folksongs [2 piano version]
    • Marat/Sade Suite [2-piano transcription]
    • Drink Old England Dry: a Folksong Frolic for Busy Fingers
    • Nursery Rhymes Kaleidoscope [2-piano transcription]
    • Minimalism
  • Compositions [Vocal]
    • Edges
    • Seven Folksong Ballads
    • Hardy Songs
  • Choral Music
    • Advent Carol Succession >
      • Advent Carol Succession notes
    • Songs of Time
    • Fern Hill
    • Universal Truth
    • The Virgin's Song
    • Nine Welsh Folksong Arrangements
    • The Jackdaw of Rheims
    • The Birds’ Mass
    • Three Motets
    • My Love in her Attire
    • Gaudete, gaudete!
    • Three Hardy Settings for unaccompanied choir
    • The Cuckoo
    • In Vernali Tempore
    • The Willow Song
    • Dance to your Daddy
    • Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill
    • Carol: I Sing of a Maiden
  • Compositions [chamber/instrumental]
    • Quintet "magnas inter opes inops"
    • String Quartet No.1
    • String Quartet No.2
    • Austerity
    • Your Presence [piano/violin]
    • in memoriam G B
    • Past Tense
    • "Conversing with a Silent Marsh Harrier" for string quintet
    • Five Folksong Arrangements (for the Crucible)
    • Latin Primer [Septet]
    • Latin Primer [violin/piano]
    • Variations on a Plainsong - original version for solo clarinet
    • Blaydon Races
    • Folksong Dance Suite for Cello & Piano
    • Dance to Your Daddy [piano]
    • Grazioso (guitar solo)
    • Dorset Suite (guitar duo)
    • Sonatina for Violin & Piano [1979]
    • the Cuckoo - 'cello & chamber orchestra
    • The Phoenix
  • Compositions [jazz/light]
    • Funked-up Bach
    • Basement Jazz
    • Too Darn Hot
  • A Dorset Affair
  • Compositions [Pastiche]
    • La Ronde
    • Zartom: Symphony
    • Hornby: Exultate Jubilate
  • The case for a National Rehearsal Orchestra for New Music
  • ARTWORK
    • Gallery - Room 1 Life Underwater
    • Gallery - Room 2 Life around us
    • Gallery - Room 3 [flowers]
    • Gallery - Room 4 [SEASCAPES & LANDSCAPE]S + Mika]
    • Rogues gallery....
    • Pembrokeshire scenes i
    • Pembrokeshire scenes ii
    • Durham 'prints'
    • Picture Dorchester....
    • Italy October 2010
    • Paris
    • Prague
  • Miscellaneous art works
  • Poems
    • We English - a historical rhyme
    • Touching His Face
    • Commanded Time
    • Master of my Fate?
    • Alas, poor Ludo!
    • New Co-op Party Anthem
  • Rick Birley Blog
    • Hobie Adventure Island >
      • Maiden Voyage 12.iii.11
  • Miscellaneous
    • Maverick
  • Compositions [Miscellaneous]
    • Music Hall for Westfield
    • 60th birthday concert: May 24th 2014 Orchestral Concert

Toccata (for piano): "On the Edge"

I wrote this Toccata intending to create a strong, muscular tour de force, in defiance of my Parkinson’s feebleness and intense fatigues that hinder my ability to operate a computer. It is a difficult piece which I intend to expand into a two-piano version. I've called it "On The Edge", as the music is dedicated to my friend Geof Edge.

I completed it just past midnight on 21st October 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic is once again rampaging through the land and indeed throughout the world. There's a certain irony about this musical form, since "toccare" is Italian for "to touch"....thus "toccata" is, literally, "touched". The current pandemic, whether in level 1, 2 or 3, is making us fearful of TOUCH, whether casual or intimate. The deadly virus transmits through touching. My toccata has both flipsides of 'touch' coin: the violent & the gentle. We humans crave touching,in hugs, hand-holding and the like; but these have become dangerous. We fear the invidious 'touch' of the invisible, deadly coronavirus.

  • HOME [and contact form]
  • CONCERT
  • Rick Birley biography
  • Compositions [Orchestral works]
    • Peterloo
    • Bishops & Clerks >
      • The Flow
      • These Distracted Times
      • The Rechabite
      • Sunset Island
    • Chamber Symphony [No.1] in Five Movements
    • Symphony No.2 ["little bird"]
    • Hebrew Songs of Love, Faith & Survival
    • Piano Concerto
    • Symphonic Suite for Piano & Orchestra
    • Tanquam Sponsus [piano & orchestra]
    • Spanish Folksongs
    • Chansons de France
    • A Dorset Rhapsody
    • Call to Remembrance - a meditation on The Last Post
    • Nursery Rhymes Kaleidoscope
    • Latin Primer
    • Olympian Glories
    • Sar-planina - a Macedonian folksong
    • Marat/Sade Suite >
      • Marat/Sade notes
    • Maverick
    • Variations on a Plainsong
    • Eight Orchestral Studies
    • Christmas Exultation
    • Romney Facets
    • A Little English Folksong Suite/ The Ploughboy
    • English Folksong Suite No.2
    • Movement for String Orchestra "magnas inter opes inops"
    • Lord of the Dance
    • Sea Song
    • Greensleeves
  • Piano Music (solo & 2-piano)
    • Piano Sonata
    • Toccata: "On the Edge"
    • March Wind
    • Donegal - a choral fantasy transcribed for piano
    • Butterfly in the Breeze
    • Variations on a Plainsong - piano transcription
    • Ten Preludes for Piano
    • Carol Preludes [piano]
    • Salutation Carol Prelude [piano]
    • Preludes [piano] >
      • 3 Preludes for Piano
    • Papillons
    • Spanish Folksongs [2 piano version]
    • Marat/Sade Suite [2-piano transcription]
    • Drink Old England Dry: a Folksong Frolic for Busy Fingers
    • Nursery Rhymes Kaleidoscope [2-piano transcription]
    • Minimalism
  • Compositions [Vocal]
    • Edges
    • Seven Folksong Ballads
    • Hardy Songs
  • Choral Music
    • Advent Carol Succession >
      • Advent Carol Succession notes
    • Songs of Time
    • Fern Hill
    • Universal Truth
    • The Virgin's Song
    • Nine Welsh Folksong Arrangements
    • The Jackdaw of Rheims
    • The Birds’ Mass
    • Three Motets
    • My Love in her Attire
    • Gaudete, gaudete!
    • Three Hardy Settings for unaccompanied choir
    • The Cuckoo
    • In Vernali Tempore
    • The Willow Song
    • Dance to your Daddy
    • Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill
    • Carol: I Sing of a Maiden
  • Compositions [chamber/instrumental]
    • Quintet "magnas inter opes inops"
    • String Quartet No.1
    • String Quartet No.2
    • Austerity
    • Your Presence [piano/violin]
    • in memoriam G B
    • Past Tense
    • "Conversing with a Silent Marsh Harrier" for string quintet
    • Five Folksong Arrangements (for the Crucible)
    • Latin Primer [Septet]
    • Latin Primer [violin/piano]
    • Variations on a Plainsong - original version for solo clarinet
    • Blaydon Races
    • Folksong Dance Suite for Cello & Piano
    • Dance to Your Daddy [piano]
    • Grazioso (guitar solo)
    • Dorset Suite (guitar duo)
    • Sonatina for Violin & Piano [1979]
    • the Cuckoo - 'cello & chamber orchestra
    • The Phoenix
  • Compositions [jazz/light]
    • Funked-up Bach
    • Basement Jazz
    • Too Darn Hot
  • A Dorset Affair
  • Compositions [Pastiche]
    • La Ronde
    • Zartom: Symphony
    • Hornby: Exultate Jubilate
  • The case for a National Rehearsal Orchestra for New Music
  • ARTWORK
    • Gallery - Room 1 Life Underwater
    • Gallery - Room 2 Life around us
    • Gallery - Room 3 [flowers]
    • Gallery - Room 4 [SEASCAPES & LANDSCAPE]S + Mika]
    • Rogues gallery....
    • Pembrokeshire scenes i
    • Pembrokeshire scenes ii
    • Durham 'prints'
    • Picture Dorchester....
    • Italy October 2010
    • Paris
    • Prague
  • Miscellaneous art works
  • Poems
    • We English - a historical rhyme
    • Touching His Face
    • Commanded Time
    • Master of my Fate?
    • Alas, poor Ludo!
    • New Co-op Party Anthem
  • Rick Birley Blog
    • Hobie Adventure Island >
      • Maiden Voyage 12.iii.11
  • Miscellaneous
    • Maverick
  • Compositions [Miscellaneous]
    • Music Hall for Westfield
    • 60th birthday concert: May 24th 2014 Orchestral Concert