About Toccata Press

Toccata Press is an independent publisher of books on music. As the sister company of the CD label Toccata Classics, Toccata Press is expressly dedicated to tackling important subjects that other publishers have failed to address. Brian Newbould’s examination of the Schubert symphonies, amazingly, was the first full-length analysis in any language. Harold Truscott’s book on the orchestral music of Franz Schmidt was the first to be written in English on that composer, nor had anyone written a book on Enescu in English before Toccata Press brought out Noel Malcolm’s pioneering study of this great musician. Owen Toller’s monograph of Pfitzner’s opera Palestrina was likewise the first full-scale examination in English of that neglected masterpiece. Vol. 1 of Andrew Ashbee’s examination of the life and music of John Jenkins was not only the first book on Jenkins but also the first on the viol fantasy as a genre. Another of our numerous titles on British music, Ronald Stevenson: The Man and his Music, is probably the largest book on any living composer. And our efforts on behalf of Stevenson continue with Comrades in Art, featuring his correspondence with Percy Grainger and complete writings on Grainger and his music. Tully Potter’s compendious biography of the violinist-composer Adolf Busch is a monument to a man who was not only an outstanding musician but also a moral beacon in a trouble time.

The titles in preparation include two featuring the writings of Hans Keller: his collected essays on Stravinsky, coupled with Milein Cosman’s insightful drawings and prints of the composer, and the complete articles from Music and Musicians. Also for publication shortly are a life-and-works of the Norwegian composer Ludvig Irgens-Jensen (Norway’s greatest composer, Grieg notwithstanding!) by Arvid Vollsnes, an edition of Martinů’s correspondence and the second volume of Andrew Ashbee’s study of John Jenkins. Among the titles further down the pipeline are William Melton on Engelbert Humperdinck, a full-length analysis of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony by Steven Coburn, a symposium of essays on Berthold Goldschmidt, and a study of the influence of French music on Nordic composers from the beginning of the twentieth century until the outbreak of the Second World War.

Toccata Press was founded in 1981 by Martin Anderson, the writer and critic, during the ten years he spent working at the free-market Institute of Economic Affairs, where he honed the craft of the editor under the aegis of Arthur Seldon, the legendary Editorial Director of the IEA. Seldon always emphasised the importance of consumer sovereignty, and Anderson holds that the most important sentence in all economics, ‘The sole end and purpose of all production is consumption’ (from Book II of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations), should be reflected in book production – meaning footnotes (which don’t interrupt the reader) rather than endnotes (which do). Toccata Press publications thus strive for clarity in both text and design.