Toccata

Toccata is a piece about decay, about the impermanent. The emergence over time or, rather, progression of entropy is a key characteristic of our universe. Everything evolves to nothing. We as mortal beings have sometimes trouble reconciling with this idea. Humans have sought immortality for millennia, be it through ancient potions or modern medicine, be it from leaving a legacy that we feel will stand the test of time. It will, only to decay later than us.

Toccata is a piece about change. Change lies at the heart of human cognition and human nature. Our thoughts and our emotions happen over time, and are a function of the change that is both around us and at the very core of our selves. Change comes in nature in cycles. Seasons of growth, seasons of ripe fruits of life, seasons of decay, of death, rebirth.

Toccata is music. We find music to convey some of the deepest streams of human condition, connecting it to some other form of being. Music also happens over time, and music happens because of change. Music encodes our feelings better than any other aid we may have. Toccata incorporates this at its very core, as the main sound is Andreas' family piano where he learned to play, sampled this past July.

Read more about the piece, and the collaboration between Marcelo and Andreas on andreasrau.eu/toccata

Basic controls:

• Click on the piece or press spacebar to start it (WebAudio requires user intervention for the music to start). Once the music has started, again click or press spacebar to play/pause.
• Press “s” to save a still at the current resolution
• Press “r” to start recording a video at the current resolution, then “r” again to stop.

WebM audio-video recording performed using the library RecordRTC by https://muazkhan.com/, MIT licence.