Comparative Study On Khachaturian’s "Toccata" And Ravel ’s "Toccata"

Toccata is an ancient and short musical genre. From its origins in the 16 th century to the present, the content of the Toccata music genre has been increasingly grown in rich and innovative forms. The 20 th century Soviet composer Khachaturian redefined the dissonant chords and color of Toccata. His works contain a strong Armenian regional style, diverse elements of folk music and Western creation techniques with mutual integration. During the same period, the French composer Ravel created another Toccata. It not only continued the features of impressionism in music, but also inherited the traditional techniques of classical features. The perfect combination of traditional and impressionist techniques forms its unique style and it becomes the classic works of piano.This article first analyzed and compared the two Toccatas’ characteristics of creation background, modal, tonal, structure, melody, harmony, and other aspects of creation techniques, and then compare them from the color, the requirements of rhythm, speed and intensity, the tension of music under the three major aspects of the music playing techniques.