to transcribe or not to transcribe?

[cziffra]

pretty self explanatory- is the transcription process worth it?  

for example...did liszt REALLY have to rewrite all of beethoven's symphonies?

[eddie92099]

Absolutely worth it. Pianists should be able to perform great music such as the Beethoven Symphonies, don't you think?
Ed

[thracozaag]

pretty self explanatory- is the transcription process worth it?  

for example...did liszt REALLY have to rewrite all of beethoven's symphonies?

 In Liszt's time people didn't have access to CD recordings of their favorite symphonies.  
 And besides, transcriptions are FUN.

[schnabels_grandson]

I think transcribing is also a fun hobby.  I am working on a piano reduction for a bach concerto, and when you get used to the difficulty it goes pretty fast.  Bach said that transcribing other composers' music made him think musically.  

[krenske]

I think bach was talking about something else...

[schnabels_grandson]

Oh?  What was he talking about then?

[krenske]

well...
ok then..
ru thinking about him "transcribing" the music of Frescobaldi and DeGrigny... as in "copying"... or about his few transcriptions of the concertos of Vivaldi et al... ? well, he did transcribe/"rearrange" some of his own music etc...

Anyway... Bach had too many cigars [and children] to really know what's going on anyway. Lets hope he's having a heavenly cigar at the moment while instructing [the young] to St Cecilia to play a suite or two as god looks on with the score of .... on his mind [and it isn't john passion...]

[zhiliang]

Well i believe there is no harm in transcriptions. Many nice encore pieces are transcriptions and there are not many poor ones out there. At least the world is not made worse by transciptions even if not better.

Some of my favourite transcriptions:-

1. Wagner-Liszt Overture to Tanhauser
2. Mendelssohn-Liszt-Horowitz Variations On Wedding March
3. Tchaikovsky-Feinberg Scherzo from Pathetique Symphony
4. Bizet-Horowitz Carmen

And in fact there are many great Schubert Lieder that would not be so accessible to certain audience if it has never been transcribed. In fact sometimes, i feel that transcriptions actually bring the awareness of the piece to more people. Isnt that good?

Zhiliang

[rachfan]

Years ago, transcriptions were frowned upon by purists as an anathema.  Today they are more accepted in the repertoire.  Furthermore, they make some seldom heard music far more accessible than would be the case otherwise.  For example, although the large collection of  Rachmaninoff's Songs are gorgeous works that have been translated into three or four languages, they are rarely heard, and when they are heard, they are being sung by Russian artists, since we prefer to hear them that way.  

Rachmaninoff took the trouble to do his own piano transcriptions of Lilacs, Op. 21, No. 5 and Daisies, Op. 38, No. 3.  Both these pieces make wonderful, short encores.  Over a decade ago, Earl Wild transcribed a large group of these songs for piano.  While his idiom is not exactly Rachmaninoff, I believe that Rachmaninoff would have been very pleased by the results.  For example, over the years there have been some semi-successful transcriptions of "Floods of Spring". Wild's effort retired all of the earlier efforts.  So yes, there is something positive to be said about piano transcriptions.