A toccata can sound as though the performer is discovering it in real time: rapid scales suddenly stop, a chord lands like a spoken emphasis, then the tempo and texture change again. Yet sounding improvised does not mean that the material is placed at random. The freedom comes from constant turns on the surface; coherence comes from placing those turns within audible sections, contrasts and tonal destinations.
Bach's Toccata in E minor, BWV 914, makes this especially clear. Its four sections set a terse opening gesture, a freer slow passage, a more propulsive section and a concluding fugue against one another. The final counterpoint does not erase the earlier improvisatory quality. It gathers the wandering energy into sustained relationships between voices. If a pianist pursues speed alone, the music becomes continuous finger-work. If every pause is made to sound final, the sense of exploratory motion disappears. The important questions are where a section departs from, where it hangs in suspense, and why a new texture arrives at that moment.
A toccata therefore does not ask us to choose between freedom and discipline. Each local gesture should sound freshly conceived while the whole still has direction. Breathing, touch and changes of pace can feel spontaneous at the piano, but they must serve the proportions and destinations of the sections. Convincing improvisatory freedom usually becomes possible only after the performer understands the structure clearly.
https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001087
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https://imslp.org/wiki/Toccata_in_E_minor%2C_BWV_914_%28Bach%2C_Johann_Sebastian%29
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