Busoni-Bach St Anne P&F - One Note My Piano Lacks

[j_menz]

In the fifth last bar of the Fugue in Busoni's transcription of Bach's Prelude & Fugue in Eb "St Anne" BWV 552  (score here, just in case you don't carry a spare on you at all times), marked fff, and probably the loudest sound you're supposed to make in the whole piece, is an octave Ab. 

The problem is that the bottom Ab of the octave is not there on an 88 key piano. It's that bottom A right at the start, but supposed to be flat.  It's the start of a last great false entry of the first theme, and is followed by a series of (also loud) octaves that, mercifully, have all their notes present and accounted for.

Given the strength of the chord here, and what follows it, missing the bottom note rather spoils the effect, and I can't see an alternative.

I know Busoni used a Bosie Imperial, but rushing out to get one (or one of the few others that would also have the note) seems rather impractical - especially for one note.

Any ideas for a workaround?

[indianajo]

An electronic organ.  Play the bass line on the pedals. 
They can be bought for $100 to 200 these days, with problems, and fit in your living room way better than any grand piano. 25 pedal electronic organs go up and down stairs way better than grand pianos, also.   Most models then need $50-200 in new electrolytic  capacitors, and perhaps some contact cleaning. 
My Hammond H100 even has an attack to the bass notes, equivalent at least to a string bass.  With some further modification of the circuitry a piano like attack can be arranged.  Transistors are way easier to paint unique tone colors with than the vacuum tubes this model was designed with. 
I looked in the bargain papers for a surplus harpsichord pedal unit to put under my piano, having read that Mr Bach had one on his inventory at death.  It is the wrong century for that, but old organs are a positive plague on the market, and some jurisdictions are charging the owners to dismember and bury them.  So they have a negative worth in the southern UK and Florida. A Great boon to the artist of modest means.   

[j_menz]

Were I to attempt it on an organ, I would play the original. Busoni's transcription for piano would be totally unsuited.

[quantum]

Play it up an octave.  The displacement will not hurt the music much.  In certain music, organists will change the octave if it suits the instrument or registration better.  

Use a resultant.  Basically you are playing the harmonics of the pitch you wish to imply.  There are organ stops that specifically do this.  Not all organs can afford a true 32' stop.  Even if an organ does not have a resultant stop, the organist could create the effect by playing 5ths with the feet.  
https://www.organstops.org/r/Resultant.html

For example you could play Ab-Eb-Ab, G-D-G, C-G-C.

[iansinclair]

Better yet -- learn to play a real organ (not one of those electronic imposters!) and really truly enjoy the thing!  That fff entrance of the theme to which you refer is one of the very very very few places I have ever been inspired to use the full resources of one of the really wonderful organs I used to have the privilege to play (a major cathedral).  It's in the pedal line, of course, and Busoni attempts to get the effect of the pedal registration by showing the fff octaves.

I have my registration for it at hand here... 32 foot pedal diapason, pedal flute.  16' ditto plus 16' Spanish trumpet (borrowed from the Solo manual) plus 16' great diapason.  8,4,2 pedal, great and swell diapasons, 8 and 4 miscellaneous flutes, VII rank mixture.

The organist at Lincoln cathedral told me once that he also used the 64 foot major diapason there -- but that's one of the few places in the world that has one.  That's about 6 hertz... you can't feel it, but you sure as heck know it's there...

[j_menz]

Play it up an octave.  The displacement will not hurt the music much.  In certain music, organists will change the octave if it suits the instrument or registration better.  

Use a resultant.  Basically you are playing the harmonics of the pitch you wish to imply.  There are organ stops that specifically do this.  Not all organs can afford a true 32' stop.  Even if an organ does not have a resultant stop, the organist could create the effect by playing 5ths with the feet.  
https://www.organstops.org/r/Resultant.html

For example you could play Ab-Eb-Ab, G-D-G, C-G-C.

Prefer not to go up an octave, I think it doesn't sound impressive enough there. But many thanks for the lead on resultants - I'll have a play.

[j_menz]

Better yet -- learn to play a real organ (not one of those electronic imposters!) and really truly enjoy the thing! 

Perhaps in my retirement.  I have played (or attempted too, given my lack of pedalling experience)  the Toccata & Fugue in Dm on a real organ, but the building it was in burnt to the ground before I had the chance to broaden my horizons much.

I agree wholeheartedly with the full resources effect here, which is why the missing key is bugging me so much.

The rest of the transcription is pretty amazingly good.

[j_menz]

(not one of those electronic imposters

Some of the "electronic imposters" seem pretty damn good these days I must say. And they have some chance of fitting in my house.

Not exactly the body numbing effect of a big pipe one, I agree. But less likely to have people from half a mile away "dropping by".

[nyiregyhazi]

In the fifth last bar of the Fugue in Busoni's transcription of Bach's Prelude & Fugue in Eb "St Anne" BWV 552  (score here, just in case you don't carry a spare on you at all times), marked fff, and probably the loudest sound you're supposed to make in the whole piece, is an octave Ab.  

The problem is that the bottom Ab of the octave is not there on an 88 key piano. It's that bottom A right at the start, but supposed to be flat.  It's the start of a last great false entry of the first theme, and is followed by a series of (also loud) octaves that, mercifully, have all their notes present and accounted for.

Given the strength of the chord here, and what follows it, missing the bottom note rather spoils the effect, and I can't see an alternative.

I know Busoni used a Bosie Imperial, but rushing out to get one (or one of the few others that would also have the note) seems rather impractical - especially for one note.

Any ideas for a workaround?

When you say it's supposed to be a flat, do you mean the score writes a natural? If so, play that. At the end of the chaconne I add a thumb octave to the descending bass notes and then play a to g at the bottom where the original text cops out and stops descending. It fakes a sense of going down to a low g that doesn't exist. A can certainly fake an A flat if you voice towards the thumb. The furthest I went with this was to use a low A as a substitute for a low f sharp in the Liszt Dante sonata. I also used the same thing to drop a c major 2nd inversion and a b flat second inversion down an octave, just before the final andante of the Liszt sonata. Nyiregyhazi used this substitution technique very widely.

[j_menz]

When you say it's supposed to be a flat, do you mean the score writes a natural? If so, play that. At the end of the chaconne I add a thumb octave to the descending bass notes and then play a to g at the bottom where the original text cops out and stops descending. It fakes a sense of going down to a low g that doesn't exist. A can certainly fake an A flat if you voice towards the thumb. The furthest I went with this was to use a low A as a substitute for a low f sharp in the Liszt Dante sonata. I also used the same thing to drop a c major 2nd inversion and a b flat second inversion down an octave, just before the final andante of the Liszt sonata. Nyiregyhazi used this substitution technique very widely.

The score states a flat.

Substituting an A natural isn't too bad, but I think the answer lies in an effective use of the resultants quantum has directed me to.  Your A for F# is actually in line with that.

I'll have a listen to more of Nyiregyhazi on YT with that in mind.

[nyiregyhazi]

The score states a flat.

Substituting an A natural isn't too bad, but I think the answer lies in an effective use of the resultants quantum has directed me to.  Your A for F# is actually in line with that.

I'll have a listen to more of Nyiregyhazi on YT with that in mind.

Oh, the a for an f sharp was actually part of an f sharp major chord. :-) I played a natural, a sharp, c sharp f sharp. It doesn't need to make any harmonic sense as the texture is too full to distinguish the exact pitch. If the thumb is voiced, the ear assumes that there will be a similar root beneath, rather than a note that makes no harmonic sense. It might be a good idea to try a fuller chord plus the substitute. A natural, E flat and a flat would likely be pretty indistinguishable from a low a flat, if voiced primarily to the upper notes.

Also, what you said there reminded that volodos does this quite often too. I seem to recall that he plays a and f sharp as an unbeat when the theme goes into f sharp minor arrival in the Liszt second ballade. First inversion makes little literal  sense in the bass but it substitutes well for an implied root. He does things in vallee Doberman too, I think in the tremolo at the start of the cadenza. I believe he plays a and b at the bottom to substitute for g sharp and b. I'm not 100 certain if I remember rightly, but I play it that way myself for a real mysterious rumble.

[j_menz]

It might be a good idea to try a fuller chord plus the substitute. A natural, E flat and a flat would likely be pretty indistinguishable from a low a flat, if voiced primarily to the upper notes.

That does seem to be the case.  I'm also leaning towards Bb-Eb-Ab. Busoni uses ninths in some of his other transcriptions, more for tonal reasons than harmonic ones, and that seems to work here as well.

I also think that whatever I do here needs to also be done (or something similar done) to the remaining octaves in the voice, even though they are do-able as written.