The piece has an ostinato form of variation subjected, however, to the rigours of three-part form (ABA1). As with many of Kisiels works, the Toccata starts innocently - a regular pulsing four sixteenth-note figure in the right hand and a chromatic quarter-note theme in the left, contrasting charmingly with the initial aura of diatonic figuration. The ambitus is initially limited from the fourth to sixth octave. But everything bursts in the course of the development of the sound. An unexpected disturbance appears during the course of the figuration which signals the change of the four note figure to a triplet, then to a quintuplet figure, a change of time signature, the conclusion having the character of a rhetorical question mark (e.g. phrases involving three repetitions of a chordal syncopation), sharp dynamic contrasts. The ambitus expands rapidly to the first octave in the bass and the eighth in the soprano, the harmonic figuration changes to melodic, in the objectivized sound space romanticism suddenly bursts from the spirit of pathos. However, this is ''controlled'' pathos, balancing on the border of irony, mockery.
[M. Gąsiorowska, Kisielewski, PWM 2011]
- Number of pages: 8
- Cover: softcover
- Published: 1946
- Type: instrumental solo
- Size: N4 vertical (235x305 mm)
Out of Print
