This toccata on a pop song is intended as both a transcription – it tries to amplify the original piece by integrating to the piano version a constant rhythmic underlining – and also a paraphrase – as it explores particularly new elements to the original music.

Nik Kershaw enjoyed popularity in the 90’s as a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and singer with exemplary hits as “Wouldn’t It Be Good’, “Wide Boy”, “Don Quixote”, “The Riddle” and “Human Racing” among other titles. He spent 62 weeks on the UK singles chart between 1984 and 1985, such was his popularity. Human Racing was the title track for this debut studio album – of the same name, released in September 1984.

The toccata is a virtuoso type of piece that emphasizes fast passages to show dexterity of the performer’s fingers. From the Baroque period on, there were numerous composers who attempted the genre: Frescobaldi, Sweelinck, Alessandro Scarlatti, JS Bach, then followed by romantics like Schumann, Liszt and Allan, to the 20th Century’s Ravel, Prokofiev, Sorajbi, and Enescu, to name a few.

This particular Toccata is prevalently a ‘paraphrase de concert’ in the Franz Liszt tradition of recreating other composers’ pieces. A brief introduction transforms the song’s beginning into a succession of repeated note’s motifs supported by cadential chords along the axis A-E – the pivots for the A minor original tonality. The paraphrase for the song itself is elaborated on the original melody accompanied by a dense series of chords and broken arpeggios. The central section introduces a cadencial point that modulates to an improbable F#. The new tonal center determines enharmonic procedures which transfigure the song’s fade-out into a continuous variations of a D minor ninth chord along stretches of polytonal scales in the left hand, ending on a very soft dynamic.

The prompting for the effective creation of this music came from Petra Chong, who asked me to get her an arrangement of a piece she liked. This virtuoso piece is the result. I hope that it functions as a tribute to this great song, and its composer.