Toccata (from Italian toccare, literally, “to touch”) is a virtuosic piece  typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring virtuosic passages, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally testing the dexterity of the performer.

Less frequently, the name is applied to works for multiple instruments (the opening of Claudio Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo being a notable example).