This Toccata was composed in 2001 by Nathan Wright Shirley. It is a piece built around the quick repetition of a single note which sets the perpetual motion that drives the piece from beginning to end. The music is a seamless blend of two seemingly polar opposites, containing both smooth lyrical melodies, and harsh mechanical rhythms, often simultaneously.
The challenges and demands this piece places on the performer are exceedingly great. The recording here was performed by the composer, played in one take without cutting or splicing.
Nathan Wright Shirley is a composer and pianist born in Charlotte, North Carolina. His music has won a number of international awards and has been broadcast internationally. His principal composition teacher and mentor was a favorite student of Khachaturian, (at a time when Khachaturian was highly unfashionable to the modern ‘composers’ of post-Stalin Russia).
Visit his web site where you may listen to more of his music and view many of his scores:
http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/shirley