Wagner - Siegfried's Funeral March

[ronde_des_sylphes]

My transcription.

I did record this a while back at home, but my piano was needing tuned and thus this should be a considerable improvement.

Recorded at the end of a long day's session, in a hired church. Perhaps appropriately for a transcription from Gotterdammerung, by this stage in the proceedings it was completely dark outside and I had no idea where the lighting switches were, so it was all done in very dim conditions...

[furtwaengler]

I'm sorry that I missed this until now. Very nice transcribing - very nice unfolding of the drama. Coincidentally, looking at the October 2025 date, I had put together a set of three pieces in memory of a fallen hero (whether fictitious or real) September-October 2025 that consisted of Busoni's transcription of this funeral march, my adaptation of the Beethoven-Liszt Eroica funeral march, and the Wagner-Liszt Feierlicher Marsch from Parsifal. I had an idea of a progression of death, memorial, triumph/glory. I had it down but didn't get to perform it. Busoni's transcription has a lot to it, but it is very much in service to the drama - there is a good rule to both the transcription process and the performing of a transcription, which is "play what you hear, not what you see" in relation to the original score, Then it often ceases to be literal in a note for note sense, but is a dynamic equivalent which accurately translates the spirit of a piece from one medium to the other. Busoni's extra flourishes accomplish this well in my opinion, but it also takes the performer to see it in a dramatic bigger picture - the notes become approximations to a degree. How does a piano get the sustained build up of tension and resolution in the big trumpet line suspending over the exploding orchestra underneath? It takes the imagination. You handle the spot almost like a chorale. I like the purity of your approach seen both in your writing and your playing. Wagner's idea is simple, but his execution is complex, especially in the rhythms which seem to be transcribing something from his head into notation which can't exactly be placed down. Your precision in that regard is appreciated. I will keep this near me.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Thanks so much for listening and the thoughts! I've looked at the Busoni transcription before and I didn’t really get on with some aspects of it: by and large the issues which you draw attention to in terms of literalism v getting the overall impression across. I'm sure I read somewhere that later in his life, Busoni wanted his version suppressed - but I don't know why.