toccata for john roos

Written in late 2007 as a prescribed South African work for the 11th Unisa International Piano Competition, toccata for john roos is dedicated to the then Director of the Unisa Foundation. It was premiered by Ben Schoeman, who won the competition, held in Pretoria in January 2008. The toccata epitomises Reddy’s compositional ‘principles of clazz’ as explained in his detailed introductory notes to the score. Called ”Toccata for John Roos: Introductory notes and composer’s manifesto’, they are reproduced in this new publication and are also available below. Here he refers to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) and Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979), two books that he greatly admired. It is a joyful, witty and virtuoso 22-page score, with many expressive markings in Italian, English and German, and changes of tempo that often use unconventional metronome marks.

Together with his great friend, the German tabla player Florian Schiertz, Reddy made a transcription of the piece for tabla solo, which is available here.