Piano transcriptions piano teachers

Hello, I would like some opinions related to an esthetic struggle I'm having with my piano teacher over piano transcriptions. I love piano transcriptions. Simply because I love the piano and I love the original music. I play the piano because I want to play music I love. And I get more from playing a piece of music myself than listening to great recordings (which I still do an awful lot of). So I think it is perfectly natural to play great transcriptions when I find them, like Busoni's, Liszt's, d'Albert's, Tausig's etc.

My teacher goes on about how piano transcriptions served an historical purpose, i.e. they made making orchestral scores much more widely known in the 19th century before radio and recording technology. Most orchestral pieces were widely known first through piano transcriptions. Great, so what?

I realize it has been conventional in classical music during the 20th century (particularly post-WWII) to dismiss piano transcriptions, 'classical pieces should only be played according to the original score'. Great, so what? I don't care what the mainstream of classical music institutional thought believes.

My teacher says I should play music 'for the piano'. How is a transcription any less of a piano piece? Especially when done by some of history's greatest pianists (Liszt, Busoni etc.)?

I am getting a little fatigued about my teacher's very narrow esthetics and musical tastes (and not just with piano transcriptions, I guess this post should be broader than the subject). But he still helps me play better and learn more easily (even the transcriptions). Any thoughts on all this?

Find a teacher that supports you. Life is too short to get in a power struggle with a teacher over something as wonderful as your creativity. I been teaching piano for 27 years and when it comes to someone's creative spirit I make a point of never challenging. It's not what creation is about.

This simple minded opinion is stated in the few music books I have read. In the case of List's piano transcriptions, the new versions may be more beautiful than the original. Liszt's transcriptions of the Beethoven symphonies are wonderful in their own right yet largely inknown. In any case they serve a purpose as piano reductions so one can render them on the piano. I also like the piano transcriptions of Schubert lieder.

Same here. Many music books dismiss Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies with similar condescending remarks. In my opinion this is very original music and well written.

That is not always possible, for example with Bach, since most people do not have a harpsichord with two manuals.

Tell him to stay clear of your soul since it is yours and to teach you technique only. Suggestions for interpretation are of course acceptable. Consider a female teacher.

Wholeheartedly agreed

Jentje Goslinga

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Why should a female teacher be any less uncompromising than a male? My (female) teacher is extrememly fastidious (never pedal Bach, all quavers detached etc.) but I wouldn't dream of changing - she is far too good! Luckily I don't want to play transcriptions <g>.

Some of the greatest modern composers transcribed their own works as well as those of others: Ravel - La Valse Stravinsky - Petrushka Bartok - Dance Suite

Of course these same composers also transcribed their own and others' piano works for orchestra - a good transcription often reveals aspects of the music that may be unsuspected in the original.

Some of the greatest and most 'serious' pianists have played transcriptions Arrau and Brendel, for example. Others, such as Schnabel and Fischer did not (far as I know).

And what about the Brahms Piano Quintet/Sonata for two pianos? In any case it is not a moral issue.

Marvin Wolfthal

I used, in school years, piano reductions in order to play violine concertos (Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi) with my friend ( a violinist). They were not always the 'greatest' renditions. On the other hand, there are pieces, especialy by Bach, cantatas or organ pieces, which pianists would love to play so they use transcriptions. By the way, as a kid , I found in a (russian) book titled 'J.S.Bach' transcriptions of Vivaldi concertos . It seems that meister Bach made Vivaldi transcriptions !

And ... to the other extreme... Maurice Ravel made orchestra transcriptions of his own piano works (or of Pictures at an Exhibition). And I can't really say what I enjoy more : the piano version or the orchestra version.