AN UNDERESTIMATED ART FORM

@DR. JENS KORNDRFER NOVEMBER 2013

Purpose: Promote the Original

!! If

it were only possible to hear the productions of the great composers by means of a full orchestra, then they would be very little known; the taste for music would be less common, and the progress of this art would be significantly slower.
Franois-Joseph Ftis, 1829

and Art in General!

!! Background !! Liszt:

Transcriptions can be objective, personal or for profit !! Transcriptions in Quotations by Edwin H. Lemare and Franz Liszt !! Examples !! Conclusions

Robertsbridge Codex (1360)

!! Transcriptions

common since the Renaissance (e.g., organ and lute intabulations) !! Major composers have arranged their own or other composers works (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Messiaen) !! Busoni: Every aspect of music is transcription (inspiration - notation - performance)

L.v. Beethoven Andante con moto (Fifth Symphony), Arr. for piano by F. Liszt (page 1)

L.v. Beethoven Andante con moto (Fifth Symphony), Arr. for organ by J. Andr

How to Play Bach?

In August 1844, Franz Liszt was asked by the Bachophile Jean-Joseph Bonaventure Laurens to play Bachs organ Prelude in a minor on the piano. To the great astonishment of the Frenchman, Liszt asked him how he should play it. Liszt then proceeded to perform it in three different versions: !! 1) as the composer had understood it and desired it be performed; !! 2) how Liszt felt it himself, in the spirit of the time, and with the effects proper to a uniquely perfected instrument; !! 3) en charlatane, to astonish and dazzle the public, with a cigar in his fingers, etc.

1. Academic/Objective Transcription
The goal is to transcribe a piece for a different instrument with as few modifications as possible

J.S. Bach, Prelude and Fugue in a minor (BWV 543): Original (top); Arr. for piano by Liszt (right)

3. Transcriptions For Profit

G. Rossini Overture from Guillaume Tell

M. 219 (Original)

The purpose is to please the general public with virtuosic runs, arpeggios, etc. and corresponding behavior

M. 217 (Arr. by Liszt)

M. 219 (Arr. by Liszt) Arr. by Liszt, with virtuosic ossia

Transcription or Composition?
!!

!!

Bach/Liszt: Six Preludes and Fugues for Piano !! Bach/Liszt: Einleitung und Fuge Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen

!! !! !!

Original text with no additions from the transcriber Original text with new endings composed by Liszt Opening section from Bach, then free use of thematic material

Edwin H. LEMARE (1865-1934), Civic Organist, Arranger and Composer

My great aim for the last 10 years has been to raise the organ to its proper position as a solo instrument. I was one of the first seriously to fight the cause of introducing modern orchestral works in the form of transcriptions for the organ, whereby I hoped to get organ programs out of the old ruts or lines, so to speak.
Edwin H. Lemare, Adelaide Advertiser (September 3, 1903)

I am not one of those who would ever say that the organ can imitate the orchestra. This it can never do, but I consider that a great amount of the most beautiful orchestral music can, when played on a good instrument, be made most effective.
Edwin H. Lemare, Adelaide Advertiser (September 3, 1903)

Lemare (continued)
It [the organ] should be the musical center of the city, because it can be heard by the greatest number at the smallest cost. It must never be played in connection with any affair other than one which is essentially and intrinsically musical.
Edwin H. Lemare, San Francisco Chronicle (March 11, 1917)

Franz LISZT (1811-1886)

[Beethovens] symphonies are universally acknowledged to be masterpieces; whoever [] wishes to extend his knowledge [] can never devote too much [] study to them. For this reason, every way or manner of making them accessible or popular has a certain merit
By the development in technique and mechanism which the piano has gained of late, it is possible now to attain more and better results than have been attained so far. With the immense development of its harmonic power the piano seeks to appropriate more and more all orchestral compositions.

Franz Liszt, Preface, in Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphonies, Vol. II, trans. C.E.R. Mueller, n.p. (Melville, NY: Kalmus, 198-?)

Liszt (continued)
[] I consider my time well employed if I have succeeded in transferring to the piano not only the grand outlines of Beethovens compositions but also all those numerous fine details and smaller traits that so powerfully contribute to the completion of the ensemble.
My aim has been attained if I stand on a level with the intelligent engraver, the conscious translator, who comprehend the spirit of a work and thus contribute to the knowledge of the great masters and to the formation of the sense of the beautiful.

Franz Liszt, Preface, in Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphonies, Vol. II, trans. C.E.R. Mueller, n.p. (Melville, NY: Kalmus, 198-?)