Toccata - the improvisation with a very limited given material

(Following up from the last article of improvisation on an existing melody.)

Toccata is a musical form for keyboard instruments, written in a freestyle or improvising on very limited material, mostly just a mode or scale, since the Renaissance period. It was used as a help for singers to find the right pitch and mode before the church service. It is quite virtuoso as well.

I made a pure data gamelan patch that the program will randomly select the notes for the gamelan scale (D E F A Bb) (see more). This is the only material for me to improvise to echo the random pattern of the PD patch. My source material is only the gamelan scale. My improvisation was based on the scale and adding notes around the scale to decorate and create contrasting sections. The beginning melody is decorated with chromatic neighboring notes of a center tone. The second section is based on Bb major scale. The third section is based on the pentatonic scale. The fourth section, on Bb major scale, I change the C to C# (sharp). The last section is the arpeggiation of the gamelan scale.

As a review of that, the next gear I need to purchase if I have spare money is a foot padel to trigger the variation without stopping.

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