Piano Transcription in the 19th Century Europe - Essay Example

Piano transcription in the nineteenth century Europe Introduction Raise your hand if you can play the piano whether professional, amateur, or even beginner. How and when did you start to play the piano In my case, my mother forced me to learn piano and hired several private piano teachers for me when I was only seven. Two years later, I thought I was a piano genius seriously because I dealt with famous masterwork such as Beethoven and Haydn's symphonies. The title did not say that they were piano transcriptions and even my teachers did not mention about it. One day, when I studied Beethoven's several symphonies in my high school music textbook, I thought that the author made several mistakes in his book. The most prominent mistake he made was the "key" in the symphony. He said Beethoven's 5th symphony (1st mvt) was in key of C minor, which was not exactly same key I played before. At that time, I was very confused with what the author thought and my piano version of Beethoven. However, many scholars/ musicologists have discussed that piano transcription gave a sense of original master works to amateurs, children and female players at their private home since the nineteenth century. Comparing to the previous century, the nineteenth century Europe was the place where piano music developed actively, for examples, music publications including piano transcription/reduction, music lessons, and piano productions. In the late eighteenth century, particularly, piano became more affordable price for middle (working class) so that they could have more opportunities to familiar with masterwork in their home. Following this trend, they also spent money on getting two hands, four hands or two pianos transcription of masters' orchestral, choral and opera to perform. Since they could have know music the upper class members only enjoyed in the eighteenth century through the piano transcriptions/ reduction, scholars have seen only advantages of them. Of course, it seems good but through my childhood experience, I have a totally different view of piano transcription/reductions. Myself as a professional pianist and musicologist now, I will argue that classical music authenticity (originality) was misrepresented by piano transcriptions whose main consumers were the middle-class in nineteenth century Europe in this thesis. ************************************************************** 2. [HISTORY of 19th century Europe] i.e, who was the member of middle class The industrialization was emerged in the nineteenth century, and it particularly influenced on growth of sheet music. Jon W. Finson says, "Rotary steam presses could print much more music than had presses had, and improved transportation could speed the greater supplies of printed music to a wider audience." Hand written sheet music could not support music consumer in Europe so that rotary stream was a breakthrough to spread out to every corners of Europe. Remember that there were no radios, recording machine or TV in the nineteenth century. The only access to music was going to the concert halls, which require high price tickets. Moreover, only most major cities offered public concerts so that people in small town did not have chance to have musical life. Similar to the past, concert halls in modern life also costs lots of money; however, we do not have any problems to enjoy music in terms of the development of technologies such as radios, musical websites, and TV. Even some concert halls provide people to free concerts, too. That is, music publication was the only tool to transmit music to members of the middle class in the nineteenth century Europe. They never heard Beethoven's orchestral works before sheet music; however, thanks to the development of music publication, they could play and listen to it at home. How could they play master orchestral, choral and opera works Most of sheet music consumers considered piano transcription / reduction as a practical because it imitates all kinds of music and it does not require many people to play. Since the late eighteenth century, piano making was developed and its prices were very affordable to the middle class people. James Parakilas shows the piano prices, "In England the price of a fine grand in the early 1800s was as much as 84 (or four-fifth of a skilled workman's annual salary of 100). In New York in 1854, a Steinway square sold for $500, when the annual wage of a skilled worker ranged from $625 to $1000." They could buy it at their homes (middle class households) and spent time to enjoy it. That is why they got so many piano transcriptions of masterwork. Like members of the upper class (bourgeois), they had their own musical life in private spheres for amusement. The nineteenth century was the time both public and private musical lives were emerged, and the gaps between the two classes were narrow downed. In Artist's Journey: Letters d'un bachelier es musique, one of the great composers and pianists Franz Liszt descript the relationship between piano and orchestral works, "it multiples the original and makes it available to everyone, and even if it does not reproduce the colors it at least reproduces the light and shadow." Piano and piano transcriptions in the nineteenth century Europe were necessities like computers and cars in our modern lives. Everyone uses computer at home, work and school. Even young students do their homework with their laptop. Music played a same role of them; it was their real social lives, economic freedom, and aesthetic enjoyment. 3. Grieg's Transcriptions and the 19th Century Piano Piece Many questions regarding the usage of original and earlier musical material by Grieg's transcriptions of piano, have been brought in to account. Edvard Grieg published his 25 Norske Folkeviser og Dandser in the year 1870 (Saari, 2007). He opted to transcribe some pieces from the numbers between 292 and 522 in the Lindeman collection which was published between 1858 and 1863. Interestingly, Lindeman had previously arranged his field notations for the piano. The term 'arrangement' is construed to the alteration in the medium, and Grieg's pieces could then be called as the transcriptions of Lindeman's versions (Jones, 1935, p. 305). Nonetheless, Edvard Grieg was not the first Norwegian Composer who was responsible for the employment if folk music either directly or as a source of inspiration. There have been many composers in the preceding generation as well, by the work of who can be traced the influences from the folk music. Some of the eminent composers include Ole Bull (1810-1880), Thomas Tellefson (1823-1874), Ludvig M. Lindeman (1812-1887), and Halfdan Kjerulf (1815-1868). According to Dag Schjelderup-Ebbe, during the 1860s and 1870s, Grieg has still occasional relations with Ole Bull, in the summers particularly, when the violinist may have contributed immensely to stimulating Grieg's interest in Norwegian folk music (Saari, 2007). Significantly, Grieg, in the year 1869, dedicated to him his first transcription of folk melodies. This era from the year 1860 to 1890 was called as the Golden Age of European music by many musical scholars ( Grinde, 1971) which is the period covering the great work of Grieg. Chiefly, the German Heritage took advantages of his awareness in relationship with the national on one hand, and with the European on the other hand, which became even more focused with time passing by. As a result, his identity as a Norwegian composer gradually took shape and he was both national and cosmopolitan simultaneously. Piano transcriptions can be classified in to the following categories: 1. A literal transcription which aims to be as promising as possible to the original notation. 2. An imitative transcription imitating the sound of the original despite the new medium. 3. The instrument delineates a pianistic transcription. It may be intended for a concert performance, adding many other pianistic effects to it. Spielfiguren are some specific instrument figuration referring to pianistic transcription. 4. Many compositions like Fantasies, rhapsodies and paraphrases form another group falling under the category of transcriptions, for example, the 19th century prominent opera fantasies and paraphrases. 5. Some practical needs, including the clues of instrumentation which are visible in transcriptions as used for the substitution of full score, and assisting, for example the co-repetition of an opera. However, Grieg's transcriptions are the most fitted in the second and the third categories, which are the imitating and pianistic transcriptions respectively. Many a times, in one case, Grieg has used pedal points imitating the open strings of a violin, while in the other case, he has decided to use the variation technique. Grieg may also opt for adding a bridge or change in one section, resulting into a concert piece style, usually near the end of the transcription. Grieg treats the melodies in a practically literal way and hardly transforms them. The melodies may vary from instrumental to vocal. Out of the 25 melodies, 13 have a text. The instrumental ones are various dances as played originally by Hardingfele, or violin. The instruments that were used in the original pieces were not specified by Lindeman. Nevertheless, he names the village or the district where he collected the music from. Lindeman based his arrangements chiefly on his own field of work, whereas Grieg relied on Lindeman's piano arrangements. As a result, it was easier for Grieg to emphasize or depart from the various harmonic and modal characteristics which he felt differently. The influence of folk instruments and dances is another point to ponder over. Grieg used folk rhythms, underlines and some modal features, thereby, imitating the open strings of the instrument, and then uses drones. Grieg's transcriptions treat form, harmony and texture in a way of its own. In terms of form, Grieg adds an introduction in around 21 cases, which longs up to 1-4 measures, thereby, establishing the accompanying figuration. Furthermore, in 16 of his transcription, he added a coda of 1-16 measures. In four of his cases, the transcription was a set of variations, however, in 10 pieces Grieg simply repeats the melody or a part of it as such. In some cases, he had added a short transitory passage. These additions have transformed the structure of the pice as one can see them especially in some passages or in cases, where the irregular phrases have been rounded off by Grieg. Where Lindeman's transcriptions were 7-36 measures long, Grieg's transcriptions were between 13-60 measures in length. As a composer, Grieg became more acquainted of his style. He gradually, in a distinguished means, expressed his thoughts and idiosyncrasies in ways which were easily comprehensible as some sort of beautiful attitude or program. He was fully cognizant of the fact that he was making his own guesses of the hidden harmonies of folk music. He knew that in transcription of folk melodies for the piano, he might commit an irresistible mistake. Since, his roots were from Norway, never could he be able to locate the heart to violently tear out the roots. Grieg preferred the sincerity in expression and sharing of the artistic experience, since, he had a lucid esthetic vision of his creative work (Kortsen, Saari, 1972, 1973, 1989). Grieg's Norske folkeviser og dandse reflects itself in a magnanimous gesture with a personal and in a non-deceptive manner reaching the rich topology of the 19th Century piano piece. 4. Absolute and Adverse Determinants The experience of piano transcription is also useful for "preparation for concert attendance." It is definitely better to play the concert repertory with a piano transcription before go to the concert performance. In Leipzig Allegemeine musicalishe Zeitung, one critic claims that piano reductions offer "an opportunity for one to become familiar with the form and content, to follow better the intention of the composer, and to help one become better acquainted with anything that is strange or unfamiliar. Attending a concert after such private study, one's ear will be struck by the fresh colors of the instruments." Since one who played its piano reductions several times and catch important musical events in the piece, he will have better understanding of concert live performance. Also, live concert performances are very limited because people cannot listen to it several times in the concert halls. If one attends a concert, he can listen and appreciate it only one time unless he attends same concert in different cities or wait until the same concert scheduled. What if he misses some part of the repertory He can play numerous times with its piano transcription as much as he wants to hear the part. When he plays it, he might figure out what he never thinks about in the concert performance as well. For this reason, piano transcription was used for educational tools, too. As consumers' interest in piano transcriptions and piano were highly increased, critics and musicians also have seen only the bright side of piano transcription. However, there are many drawbacks of piano reductions they did not discovered yet at the same time. The biggest problem of piano transcriptions is that it lost its originality. In the journal, Four-Hand Piano Transcription and Geographies of 19th century Musical Reception, Thomas Christensen discusses how much piano transcription was spread throughout Germany and its neighbor countries. Arrangers cared about only main melody from original works and some of them were even did not figure out the right melodic lines. Or, they put in unnecessary musical events on the piano transcription. The piano transcription of Beethoven's 5th symphony I had for piano had weird transposition and it made me very confused. All troubles from piano reduction ruin many original master works. And the more important problem is that people who never familiar with the original version will familiar with wrong piano transcription. It is displayed in Example 1-A and 1-B. The main melody in 1-B is exactly derived from B flat Clarinet part in the orchestral works. [Example 1-A,B and C] It shares same key, time signature and same rhythm, as well. However, the arranger changed registrations and orchestrations. For instance, original Beethoven's 5th symphony has eleven different instruments: flute, oboe, and clarinet in B, bassoon, English horn, trombone, timpani, violin, viola, cello and contrabass. Each instrument has their own timbre (color) and piano cannot imitate those rich harmonies the orchestra makes. E.T.A Hoffmann was strongly against the idea that people do not need to hear dull orchestra sounds because piano can imitate it. He claims that people can imagine full color of orchestration when they listen to piano version of orchestral piece. However, how could people who never listen to the original Beethoven's 5th symphony imagine its full coloring from piano reduction I think it is limited to the people who already have familiar with the piece or musical genius like Beethoven. I had a chance to look piano reduction of Schoenberg's Klangfarben piece few weeks ago. Even though I knew the original version of it, when I played reduction version, it sounded like a totally different music for me. In the nineteenth century, not that many people of the middle class were unfamiliar with masterwork and there was no way to think about full coloring from piano reduction when they listen to it for the first time. The problem with lacking of instrumental coloring is more serious than what E.T.A Hoffman mentioned. Even using many pianos cannot have the various instrumental colors as orchestra does because piano produce only its own monochromatic sound. Example 1-C (mm.19-22) is the best example showing that piano lacks of orchestral full timbre. At this great cadence moment, you can hear how the original work produces thick and rich sounds. All eleven instruments play at the same time to make a theme of hero's struggle. However, piano transcription has only six pitches, which do not create same timbre as twenty four pitches the orchestra produces. And it would give less strong emotional impression to the audiences, since the piano transcription performance is miss a full color of orchestration. A reviewer in The Montly Musical Record says that "a pianoforte arrangement not only fails to do justify to color, but often also to form and light and shade." Even though number of instrumental, vocal works in piano arrangement gave an idea of what they are and what they sound like briefly to the people, but it never gives a feeling of deep colors and texture to the people in the century. Comparing to romantic masterwork, music in classical era such as Beethoven or Haydn's symphonies were more often transcript by many people. For example, Marc-Andre Roberge says that Johann Nepomuk Hummel produced "piano versions of Beethoven's Symphonies No.2-7." The reason people were interested in the music in classical era was that it was easier to reduce in terms of registration, voice leading and the bass lines. Imagine you are going to reduce Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto no.2, most of amateurs and professional musicians who are not good at music theory stuff will have troubles to transcript it since it requires in depth theory knowledge to do it. Their reductions will be not accurate as much as original work. Here occurs the problem. Since they are not Rachmaninoff himself, their piano versions of his piano concerto cannot be considered as their own complete work. As state earlier, most piano reductions miss too many important musical factors the original work has. Gustav Heuser also found piano transcription's drawback. He describes it as "ineptitude, superficial, and disrespect." Christensen suggests how to make good piano reductions, which are that knowing what factors should be leave out and remained, and appropriate imitation of colors and textures of orchestra. Not only amateur arrangers made mistakes but also professional arrangers or musicians also were in the same situation. Czerny's piano reduction of Beethoven's symphony was the best example. He did not want to miss every small detail from original work, so his piano replication turned out very complicated and impracticable. Notice that consumers for most of piano reductions were people of the middle class. They did not have enough music education background to play complicated piano music yet or time to practice it. And music was for amusement ultimately, not to be professional pianists. So, they pursued easier versions of it, which lost its originality. Some critics highly valued the fact that a piano arrangement gave a taste of classical repertories and it was prominent benefits of it, however, it was not a taste for original masterwork. Of course, it is good to know the masterwork through the piano reductions, but it is not the composers' intentions. Composers want to people to play, enjoy and know their original pieces, not transformation of it. Some of famous composers worked on piano transcription and tried to have full timbre and texture in piano reduction, but they never have orchestral deep color and sonic effect because of characteristics of piano's monochromatic sound. The greatest composers such as Beethoven and Haydn spend their time at least several months to compose larger works including symphonies and string quartets. In the case of Beethoven, he became a deaf when he composed his late works, and we can feel his suffers from his original works. I strongly do not think that Beethoven's piano transcriptions contain his infinite hardships as well because there were missing too many points to describe his life. Furthermore, some people in the nineteenth century who reduced orchestral, choral or more advanced piano pieces worked hard on their work because of financial stability. Christensen claims that transcription industry was increased toward the end of the century. More people wanted to hear or play piano transcriptions, so that arrangers and who wanted to get more money attempted to publish piano reductions. Roberge also says, "a composer may seek to publish transcriptions simply to earn a living in difficult times." Also, many music periodicals tried to contain piano reductions when they reviewed classical repertories. Following this trend, music publication companies needed more piano transcribers and it was another reason why numbers of arrangers were increased. Some of busy arrangers did not spend much effort in transcription; rather they worked very fast to move on next transcription. Heuser says that "the busy arranger who lays out on his desk four different scores and four empty pages of manuscript paper so that as soon as one page is filled up, he can move on without interruption to another without having to wait until the ink has dried." All arrangers need more careful editing on their reductions because there must be something they did not catch. However, many people needed "arrangers" to listen the new music through their piano arrangements, so they could not spend much more time on only one piece. Then, orchestral, choral or operatic work in a piano reduction can be considered highly valued musical form Music is a pure art, which cannot be incorporated money initially. Maybe, one might against with my idea because some composers like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his pieces for money, too. Nonetheless, there is a prominent difference between Mozart and the arrangers. Mozart created his own works from his true heart, mind and head. Did the piano reduction arrangers work their reductions like him No, because they did not create their own ideas, rather they just copied down the original work. There are the composers who arranged their friend's unknown music, too, for example, Franz Liszt. After working on piano reductions, he became more famous but his composer friends never got their fame. Then, what about his friend, who composed original work Arranger whether professional or not, they steal and revise the idea of composers' and pretend it is his own work. These days, there are many illegal imitation purse offline stores. When you go in there, you'll be surprised that they look like exactly Chanel and Louis Vuitton superficially. However, when you open and look inside of it, you'll notice something different from authentic brand such as zipper, initial of logos, and straps. The relationship between authentic brand and its imitation is same as a large scale of original musical work and piano transcription. Therefore, any kinds of piano transcriptions cannot be highly valued as much as its original works. Brett Philip pays particularly attention to the problems of four-and piano performances, which was about sexual desire, in Piano Four-Hands: Schubert and the Performance for Gay Male Desire. He argues that Franz Schubert who composed many piano four-hands to release his gay desire to his partner. Think about that two people are sitting on the small piano chair and playing four-hand piano. They can have intimacy each other when they practice the piece. This is the one way to get lovers or partners in members of the middle class when they playing four hands piano. My high school music teacher asked me to play four hands piano music with one of my classmates. To be honest, I had never talked to her before, but we became best friends through the practice duet piano. Two people who are playing four hand piano pieces together can have a lot of chances to keep in touch with their partner. Also, there are physical tensions each others as well, especially between man and woman players. It is even possible for them to fall in love each other, too. This is one of the main reason people of the middle class wanted to play more four hands piano music and large works in piano reduction was the one can apply to them. However, there are not many four hands piano works (not four hands piano transcription) because it is very hard to compose. So, people in the nineteenth century thought that transforming famous music into four hand piano transcriptions was easier than composing new four hands piano music. This is one of the prominent reason nineteenth century people were very obsessed with piano transcriptions. Even though piano transcriptions, especially, four hands piano transcriptions did not have its originality and people liked it because it is a tool to release their sexuality. In addition, their productions are not good for music education. In 1830, one critic already worried about disadvantages of piano transcription. He said that "mentors and students seem to want to play nothing but arrangement". 5. References 1. Howard Jones, Evlyn. 1935: "Arrangements and Transcriptions", Music and Letters XVI, pp. 305-311. 2. Grinde, Nils. 1971: Norsk Musikkhistorie (Oslo). 3. Kortsen, Bjarne (ed.). 1972 and 1973: Grieg the Writer vol. I and II (Bergen). 4. Saari, Seppo. 1989: "Edvard Grieg's music: background and aesthetics" in Musiikki 1-4, pp. 161-176; Proceedings from the Nordic musicological congress in Turku 15.-20.8.1988. 5. Saari, Seppo. 2007, Grieg's Transcriptions and the 19th Century Piano Piece: op. 17 Reflecting Typologies. Studia Musicologica Norvegica. Universitetsforlaget. Vol 33. Pp. 60-65. Read More