"Over the Rainbow" Original Transcription

[masterraro]

Hey everyone,

A while back I challenged myself to write a transcription of the iconic "Over the Rainbow," which is no doubt best enjoyed sung by Judy Garland in the Wizard of Oz.  The inspiration for this was sort of a mix between just playing around and perhaps channeling my inner Rachmaninov.

The transcription was a very short-lived idea, so this is not a totally ideal performance... but it's the only time I played it publicly.

I believe at the time of coming up with this, I was working on Rachmaninov's Polka de V.R., which is a "transcription" of a dinky Franz Behr polka, but in the most liberal sense of a transcription - Rachmaninov really had his way with it! He turned pretty cheesy music into a masterpiece of unbelievably inventive and virtuosic display.  Here, I'm taking pretty beloved music and making it... well.. I guess making it something else, not something better.

I confess that I hastily put this together a couple weeks before this performance, and I actually made it much better afterward, but then dropped the idea altogether, all within the course of month or something.  I suppose I'm more inclined to write original stuff that never sees the light of day than I am to make transcriptions of popular music 

Anyway, I'm opening myself up here on a public forum looking forward to some good conversation and feedback, soberly aware of the probable chance of snarky criticism. 

With appreciation,

M

[lelle]

I think it's a great transcription that stands well on its own. Have you notated it? I think you should offer sheet music!

[kalospiano]

Dude this is unlike any other version of this piece I've heard before, it sounds amazing and I find it hard to believe that it can be improved in any way, but if you were actually managing to do it, then I really hope to hear the final version one day!

[rogertilton]

Very nice arrangement and very well played. Definitely a virtuoso treatment of this piece. I think if Rachmaninoff would have arranged this song it would have sounded something like this. Liked your subtle use of the whole tone scale at one point which really added nicely to the harmonic color.