Piano Quintet

SKU: BR.EB-9399

Hommage a Schubert. Composed by Christian Mason. Chamber music; stapled. Edition Breitkopf. Music post-1945; New music (post-2000). Score and parts. Composed 2020. 72 pages. Duration 15'. Breitkopf and Haertel #EB 9399. Published by Breitkopf and Haertel (BR.EB-9399).

ISBN 9790004188736. 9 x 12 inches.

One of my favourite pieces of music as a child - and I still love it - was Schubert's Trout Quintet. It was partly the wonderful music, of course, so light-hearted and joyful on the surface, yet with twists and turns and murky depths of feeling too. But I also liked the picture of a trout on the album sleeve - such beautiful creatures! Last year, while resident at the Villa Concordia in Bamberg, as I took daily walks along the Regnitz river, I observed the trout as they calmly hovered and swayed in the shallows... But if they felt my shadow they were gone in a split second! If you ever get a chance to look closely at brown trout you see that they are covered in myriad brown/red spots of varied sizes; camouflage I suppose. Now those patterns seem to be mixing in my mind with the shifting colours of the spectral arpeggios that flow through this little piece. It's a watery piece, with rippling waves, shimmering surfaces and textural veils around the melodies which flow through it. But it also takes inspiration (and it's title) from a Pablo Neruda poem: the third stanza of Every Day You Play includes the line The sky is a net crammed with shadowy fish. There's no singer, but I imagine an invisible or imaginary voice somewhere behind (or beyond) the music, and so the score includes a melodic setting of the text. Even though this is not performed by a voice, the melody is always played by the ensemble - especially high register cello - making the piece something like the inverse of a song without words. (Christian Mason)

World premiere: Aix-en-Provence, October 16, 2020 Commissioned by the Grand Theatre de Provence - Aix-en-Provence.

Orchestra Bassoon 1, Bassoon 2, Clarinet 1, Clarinet 2, Contrabass, Flute 1, Flute 2, Horn 1, Horn 2, Oboe 1, Oboe 2, Percussion, Viola, Violin 1, Violin 2, Violoncello

SKU: PR.416414390

For Chamber Orchestra. Composed by Chen Yi. Premiered by the Idyllwild Arts Orchestra, Peter Askim, conductor. Contemporary. Full score. With Standard notation. Composed 2012. 30 pages. Duration 8 minutes. Theodore Presser Company #416-41439. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.416414390).

UPC: 680160606917. 8.5 x 11 inches.

2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets in Bb, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns in F, Percussion, Strings.
The work Tone Poem is composed for chamber orchestra, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 B-flat clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 French horns, 1 percussion and strings. The length is about 8 minutes. It is inspired by two poems by Su Dong-po (1036-1101) about southern Chinese landscape paintings. The imagination of the two beautiful ancient Chinese poems became the sonic landscape pictures, to share with my musicians and audience. The brimming waves, the sunny day, The dimming hills, the rainy haze. The West Lake as the Beauty Xizi, Whether she is adorned richly or plainly. Like spilt ink dark clouds spread o'er the hills as a pall; Like bouncing pearls the raindrops in the boat run riot. A sudden rolling gale comes and dispels them all, Below Lake View Pavilion sky-mirrored water's quiet.
The work Tone Poem is composed for chamber orchestra, 2 flutes, 2oboes, 2 B-flat clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 French horns, 1 percussion andstrings. The length is about 8 minutes. It is inspired by two poems by SuDong-po (1036-1101) about southern Chinese landscape paintings.The imagination of the two beautiful ancient Chinese poems became thesonic landscape pictures, to share with my musicians and audience.The brimming waves, the sunny day,The dimming hills, the rainy haze.The West Lake as the Beauty Xizi,Whether she is adorned richly or plainly.Like spilt ink dark clouds spread o'er the hills as a pall;Like bouncing pearls the raindrops in the boat run riot.A sudden rolling gale comes and dispels them all,Below Lake View Pavilion sky-mirrored water's quiet.

Percussion and 1 or more inst.

SKU: BR.KM-2542

Composed by Christian Mason. Solo instruments; Softbound. Kammermusik-Bibliothek (Chamber Music Library).

World premiere: Gwangju/Corea, November 24, 2016

Music post-1945; New music (post-2000). Full score. Composed 2015. 88 pages. Duration 13'. Breitkopf and Haertel #KM 2542. Published by Breitkopf and Haertel (BR.KM-2542).

ISBN 9790004504550. 9 x 12 inches.

Lahara - which literally means 'wave' - is a term used in Indian music to describe a repeating melodic phrase that accompanies table and pakhawaj solo. In such a traditional context the lahara would be played by a melodic instrument such as the sarangi, functioning as a background against which the flourishing virtuosity of the soloist could evolve. In my piece this function is also present in the form of a long line stated three times fully in the Thai gongs, however there is no virtuosic soloist. Instead, the musical evolution (if it is that) takes the form of a resonant ceremony enacted on bell plates and steel pans, situated not only on-stage but in four locations around the audience. If you want to look for it, the idea of waves can also be seen in other aspects of the piece: the slow wave of the gradual progression of players from the back of the hall to the front, which defines the form of the piece; the waves of tam-tam crescendi at the end of each statement of the lahara; maybe even in the way that the foreground melodic figurations progressively increase in density over the course of the piece until they completely dominate our perception, before suddenly disappearing… And on a more concrete note every sound is, after all, a wave. (Christian Mason, 2016)

World premiere: Gwangju/Korea, The Asian Arts Theatre, November 24, 2016.

Chamber Music Piano

SKU: PR.110418250

Composed by Shulamit Ran. Sws. Performance Score. 12 pages. Duration 11 minutes. Theodore Presser Company #110-41825. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.110418250).

ISBN 9781491133859. UPC: 680160683345. 9 x 12 inches.

This intriguing 11-minute work builds on alternations between declamatory unmetered phrases (beginning as “sonorous, rubato, with great aplomb and resonance”) and strictly motoric rhythmic sections, developing in waves of increasing drama and intensity. Commissioned by the Naumburg Foundation for pianist Xiaohui Yang’s Carnegie Hall premiere.
Ballade is a one-movement work of approximately 11 minutes, divided into three main parts that are played without significant break.Ballade alternates sections where the performer is invited to apply great interpretive freedom, especially on the temporal plane, with contrasting sections that are quite precise and rhythmic. Although carefully notated, the “freer” sections (often marked rubato) certainly allude at times to the kind of repertoire that is familiar to most concert pianists, doing so not by way of quotation but by the type of expressivity, affect, and even passagework. Thus, the performer should think of the score as a “blueprint,” where the many descriptive words I have inserted throughout the score (ranging from sonorous, rubato, with great aplomb and resonance as the work begins, to with greater motion, in a series of ever-expanding “waves” later on) are intended to act as triggers for one’s sense of imagination and fantasy to take off and bring the music alive! An inscription in the score urges the pianist to play fearlessly and exuberantly, but also tenderly!

Composed by Camille Saint- Saens (1835-1921). Arranged by Denis Rouger. Carus digital: Extra digital products. Full Score. Composed 1868. Duration 3 minutes. Published by Carus Verlag

Chamber Music Cello, Piano, Violin

SKU: PR.114423360

Composed by Stacy Garrop. Set of Score and Parts. 24+12+12 pages. Duration 8:30. Theodore Presser Company #114-42336. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.114423360).

UPC: 680160686285.

When the Newport Music Festival commissioned me for a piano trio in honor of their 2021 season, I looked for a topic that would celebrate an aspect of the Newport community. While researching the area, I was struck by the nine lighthouses situated around the island. The dual nature of lighthouses was particularly appealing to me: not only do they serve a vital role in the navigation of ships around rocks and land, but they are also a beautiful sight, particularly at night when their blinking beacons are clearly visible to the eye. It occurred to me that lighthouses link the past with the present, and will endure long into the future, with their beacons serving the same purpose for every generation.I became fascinated with the lighthouse on the property of Castle Hill Inn, located at the opening of the East Passage of the Narragansett Bay. This squat thirty-four foot granite structure was erected in 1890 on a very picturesque spot, right at the water’s edge. Its “characteristic,â� �� the nautical term for each lighthouse’s unique light sequence that allows ships to identify the lighthouse, is to alternate on for three seconds, then off for three seconds. The lighthouse has also served as the starting and finish line for numerous high profile yacht races, as well as survived a massive hurricane in 1938, though the lighthouse keeper’s nearby residence wasn’t so lucky. American novelist Thornton Wilder wrote much of his 1973 novel Theophilus North while staying at the Castle Hill Inn; a passage from the book perfectly captures the dual nature of lighthouses:“At a later visit I was able to engage the pentagonal room in a turret above the house; from that magical room I could see at night the beacons of six lighthouses and hear the booming and chiming of as many sea buoys.”In Beacon of the Bay, we first hear the lighthouse’s characteristic as its ruby light blinks on and off. This is followed by a simple theme that represents the lighthouse performing its solitary duty. As the piece progresses, we hear waves playfully lapping around its base, then yachts gracefully floating by; this is followed by a violent storm that churns the waves with so much force that they crash against the lighthouse’s granite body. But the steadfast lighthouse holds firm to the rocks, grandly blinking its ruby light. The music quiets back down to its simple theme, with yachts sailing by once more as the piece concludes.

Score Orchestra

SKU: HL.14030970

For Chamber Ensemble Score. Composed by Bent Sorensen. Music Sales America. Classical. Score. Composed 2002. 82 pages. Edition Wilhelm Hansen #WH30142. Published by Edition Wilhelm Hansen (HL.14030970).

ISBN 9788759805725.

Work for Chamber dating from 1988. The composer writes: MINNEWATER means 'love water'/'love lake', but when I began to compose the work, this direct meaning of the title was not very important to me. Rather the word itself had a magical sound. Later on, however, it occurred to me that the piece was full of mumbling swells and swarming cascades, and the sensation of water is perhaps most perceptible towards the end where lots of falling water movements are felt behind the emphasized rhythmic surface. Falls that moreover, quite literally at the end, sinks into the water. MINNEWATER has a subtitle: THOUSANDS OF CANONS, which directly refers to a compostion technique where all layers and elements in the music constantly are imitated; possibly waves imitating each other? The mudded and impalpable beginning of the work takes its starting point in one of my earlier pieces, the sextett LES TUCHINS (in fact the first 5 or 6 pages of the two pieces are quite identical but in MINNEWATER it is all 'blown up' to a larger ensemble). Quite soon, however, the thread to LES TUCHINS is cut off and it goes its own way; From the mumbling in the start - through swarming trills and pointilistic staccato movements - to a long section where the trumpet appears as a soloist and in a way conducts the movements of the remaining ensemble right to the rhythmic final section of the piece. MINNEWATER was commissioned by the Danish Radio for the German Ensemble Modern.

SSATB Choir, Piano

SKU: CA.926400

Composed by Camille Saint-Saens. Arranged by Denis Rouger, Denis Rouger. Carus digital: Extra digital products. Full Score. Composed 1862. Op. 13, No. 1. Duration 5 minutes. Published by Carus Verlag (CA.926400).

ISBN 9790007261870. French. Text: Victor Hugo.

In his poem Soiree en mer, Victor Hugo describes how the sea can be perceived very differently by two lovers at the same time in the same place. While the man perceives the deepening shadows on the dancing waves, the woman marvels at the stars shining ever brighter in the firmament. In nature, as in the words of the poem, the painful ambiguity that represents life at its core can be experienced. Like no other poet, Hugo captures this almost unbearable simultaneity of living and dying, of love and suffering. Saint-Saens translates this into music - probably the most ephemeral and contemporary of all art forms. His balanced musical form leaves plenty of room for the poetry and his subtle variations in timbre, which also inspired Denis Rouger to his choral arrangement, create a seething motion under the surface of the sea.

This art song was originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted it to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD ...wo die Ztronen bluhn (Carus 83.514).

The Drummer's Guide to Musical Styles and the Legends Who Defined Them. By Rich Lackowski. For Drum Set. Percussion - Drum Set Method or Collection. Instructional Book and Examples CD. 244 pages. Published by Alfred Publishing.

Saxophone Quartet Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone Saxophones - Grade 3

SKU: FL.FX071218

Composed by Alain Lopez. Classical, Chamber Music. Score and Set of Parts. FLEX Editions #FX071218. Published by FLEX Editions (FL.FX071218).

As the light whose reflection in the water is sometimes broken by the waves, I used ascending and descending movement in the melody. The pervasive use of syncopation also enabled me to exacerbate the impact felt by the ebb and flow.

Flute Quartet 4 Flutes - Grade 3

SKU: FL.FX071220

Composed by Alain Lopez. Classical, Chamber Music. Score and Set of Parts. FLEX Editions #FX071220. Published by FLEX Editions (FL.FX071220).

As the light whose reflection in the water is sometimes broken by the waves, I used ascending and descending movement in the melody. The pervasive use of syncopation also enabled me to exacerbate the impact felt by the ebb and flow.

Chamber Music Flute(s)

SKU: PR.144407600

Composed by Jonathan Mitchell. Sws. Performance Score. Duration 6 minutes. Theodore Presser Company #144-40760. Published by Theodore Presser Company (PR.144407600).

ISBN 9781491137987. UPC: 680160692675. 9 x 12 inches.

Imagine searching, searching underwater, searching for aquatic life... A flutist’s soliloquy captures the free-floating ebb and flow of time and currents, of camouflage and dazzling flashes of color. Jonathan Mitchell’s IN SEARCH OF AQUATIC LIFE conjures this fluidity, full of waves and beautiful contours for unaccompanied flutists to pace with impressionistic rubato, creating a six-minute journey through wherever your imagination leads.

Piano - Level 2-3

SKU: FV.FUE-10203

Composed by Barbara Heller. Chamber music. Score. Composed 1978. Duration (2'). Furore Verlag #FUE 10203. Published by Furore Verlag (FV.FUE-10203).

ISBN 979-0-50182-203-4.

After summer holidays at the sea, the ears of Barbara Heller were full of memories from the sound
of waves, which always come and go in a different way but quite similar. MMM is a good example
for a work in which the borders between music and painting already disappear in the title.
Medium difficulty.

Chamber Music String Quartet

SKU: PO.ME11

Composed by Robin Walker. Sws. Full score. Composed 1999. Promethean Editions #ME11. Published by Promethean Editions (PO.ME11).

ISBN 9780958206518.

Walk er drew inspiration for this short, slow movement from I Thirst being the the fifth of Christ's last seven words from the cross - cries of dereliction and comfort that are meditated upon annually at Passiontide. I Thirst is a ritual of solo melody, homophony and biting figuration whose dessication is, in due course, quenched by waves of string harmonics. The work's pervading instability is resolved with the subduing power of melody finally bringing balance.

Chamber Music Violin

SKU: PR.144407380

Composed by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. Performance Score. 4 pages. Duration 4 minutes. Merion Music #144-40738. Published by Merion Music (PR.144407380).

ISBN 9781491133903. UPC: 680160683475. 9 x 12 inches.

In her powerful Foreword to the music, violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins has written: “There are great works which give voice to important moments for generations, and this is one of them.” The tragedy of Elijah McClain’s murder has moved us all, and for many musicians the image of this gentle young man playing his violin for kittens at an animal shelter has added a poignant extra layer. Zwilich was a professional violinist before turning exclusively to composing, and A LITTLE VIOLIN MUSIC is a memorial from the heart of one violinist to another.
[THESE NOTES MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED OUTSIDE OF THE PUBLICATION; OK TO QUOTE A BIT AND GIVE AUTHOR CREDIT]We often research important pieces of music to gain some glimpse into the mind of the composer by understanding the times in which a piece was written. The times that brought this piece into being, 2020, has been a year like no other in our lifetimes.With the suffering of a once in a century pandemic raging in ever higher waves, and millions of people around the world confined to their homes with a shared attention span for the first time in generations, we watched in horror the 8 minute 46 second killing of George Floyd, a man previously unknown to us, but now unwillingly joining a long list of names of unarmed African Americans killed by police. The anguished backlash of citizens around the world, from Japan to New Zealand to Germany to the United States, of every age, color, and creed, has rallied for weeks and months on end to demand enough and that “Black Lives Matter.”And yet, in the midst of it all is an America starkly divided against itself with some defiantly pushing back, emboldened by authoritarian-style government actions against its own citizens occurring all over the country. It is against this backdrop that we ever had a chance to know of Elijah McClain. Here in quarantine I sometimes practice my scales in front of the news. And one day the mirror image looking back at me from the screen was a slight young man, warm, affable brown eyes, and also a violin under his chin. The newsreel-style camera pan so familiar now, I knew the only reason we were gazing upon his unfamous face was that he too had been killed by police nearly a year before. But the revelation of it in the broadcast hit me particularly hard.Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, who is not only one of the great composers of our time, is also a dear friend, and called me the next day, also deeply saddened by the news. It was from Ellen that I learned that Elijah used to play for the kittens at the local animal shelter so they wouldn’t be lonely. This kind, gentle soul was aggressively taken into police custody while saying, “I am an introvert. Please respect the boundaries that I am speaking... I’m going home.” He was never seen alive again.Ellen and I spoke of the sadness and the injustice of this several times. She felt a powerful calling to contribute something in a statement and the result is the piece you now hold in your hands. I am deeply honored to be the dedicatee of the piece, to have worked together with Ellen on some of the final details, and to pen this score note. As an invited alumna of the Eastman School of Music, I premiered the work for their virtual event on Diversity and Inclusion. Each time I play it, there is a persistent lump in my throat because Ellen has captured something poignant and powerful here.There are great works which give voice to important moments for generations, and this is one of them. We humbly offer this piece in memory of Elijah McClain.Foreword © 2021 by Kelly Hall-Tompkins. Used by permission.

Chamber Music Piano

SKU: PO.PE153

Composed by Vincent Ho. Performance Score. Promethean Editions #PE153. Published by Promethean Editions (PO.PE153).

ISBN 9781877564536.

Ho evokes a day in the life of a young child through rapid waves of chromaticism, with restless time signatures keeping things tumbling forward. Fists and forearms are employed as little tempers flare, while elsewhere respite is found in the drift of sleep, notes twinkling rubato-like in the piano's upper register.

Chamber Music Piano

SKU: CF.PL1056

Composed by Clara Wieck-Schumann, Franz Schubert, and Robert Schumann. Edited by Nicholas Hopkins. Collection. With Standard notation. 128 pages. Carl Fischer Music #PL1056. Published by Carl Fischer Music (CF.PL1056).

ISBN 9781491153390. UPC: 680160910892. Transcribed by Franz Liszt.

Introduction It is true that Schubert himself is somewhat to blame for the very unsatisfactory manner in which his admirable piano pieces are treated. He was too immoderately productive, wrote incessantly, mixing insignificant with important things, grand things with mediocre work, paid no heed to criticism, and always soared on his wings. Like a bird in the air, he lived in music and sang in angelic fashion. --Franz Liszt, letter to Dr. S. Lebert (1868) Of those compositions that greatly interest me, there are only Chopin's and yours. --Franz Liszt, letter to Robert Schumann (1838) She [Clara Schumann] was astounded at hearing me. Her compositions are really very remarkable, especially for a woman. There is a hundred times more creativity and real feeling in them than in all the past and present fantasias by Thalberg. --Franz Liszt, letter to Marie d'Agoult (1838) Chretien Urhan (1790-1845) was a Belgian-born violinist, organist and composer who flourished in the musical life of Paris in the early nineteenth century. According to various accounts, he was deeply religious, harshly ascetic and wildly eccentric, though revered by many important and influential members of the Parisian musical community. Regrettably, history has forgotten Urhan's many musical achievements, the most important of which was arguably his pioneering work in promoting the music of Franz Schubert. He devoted much of his energies to championing Schubert's music, which at the time was unknown outside of Vienna. Undoubtedly, Urhan was responsible for stimulating this enthusiasm in Franz Liszt; Liszt regularly heard Urhan's organ playing in the St.-Vincent-de-Paul church in Paris, and the two became personal acquaintances. At eighteen years of age, Liszt was on the verge of establishing himself as the foremost pianist in Europe, and this awakening to Schubert's music would prove to be a profound experience. Liszt's first travels outside of his native provincial Hungary were to Vienna in 1821-1823, where his father enrolled him in studies with Carl Czerny (piano) and Antonio Salieri (music theory). Both men had important involvements with Schubert; Czerny (like Urhan) as performer and advocate of Schubert's music and Salieri as his theory and composition teacher from 1813-1817. Curiously, Liszt and Schubert never met personally, despite their geographical proximity in Vienna during these years. Inevitably, legends later arose that the two had been personal acquaintances, although Liszt would dismiss these as fallacious: I never knew Schubert personally, he was once quoted as saying. Liszt's initial exposure to Schubert's music was the Lieder, what Urhan prized most of all. He accompanied the tenor Benedict Randhartinger in numerous performances of Schubert's Lieder and then, perhaps realizing that he could benefit the composer more on his own terms, transcribed a number of the Lieder for piano solo. Many of these transcriptions he would perform himself on concert tour during the so-called Glanzzeit, or time of splendor from 1839-1847. This publicity did much to promote reception of Schubert's music throughout Europe. Once Liszt retired from the concert stage and settled in Weimar as a conductor in the 1840s, he continued to perform Schubert's orchestral music, his Symphony No. 9 being a particular favorite, and is credited with giving the world premiere performance of Schubert's opera Alfonso und Estrella in 1854. At this time, he contemplated writing a biography of the composer, which regrettably remained uncompleted. Liszt's devotion to Schubert would never waver. Liszt's relationship with Robert and Clara Schumann was far different and far more complicated; by contrast, they were all personal acquaintances. What began as a relationship of mutual respect and admiration soon deteriorated into one of jealousy and hostility, particularly on the Schumann's part. Liszt's initial contact with Robert's music happened long before they had met personally, when Liszt published an analysis of Schumann's piano music for the Gazette musicale in 1837, a gesture that earned Robert's deep appreciation. In the following year Clara met Liszt during a concert tour in Vienna and presented him with more of Schumann's piano music. Clara and her father Friedrich Wieck, who accompanied Clara on her concert tours, were quite taken by Liszt: We have heard Liszt. He can be compared to no other player...he arouses fright and astonishment. His appearance at the piano is indescribable. He is an original...he is absorbed by the piano. Liszt, too, was impressed with Clara--at first the energy, intelligence and accuracy of her piano playing and later her compositions--to the extent that he dedicated to her the 1838 version of his Etudes d'execution transcendante d'apres Paganini. Liszt had a closer personal relationship with Clara than with Robert until the two men finally met in 1840. Schumann was astounded by Liszt's piano playing. He wrote to Clara that Liszt had played like a god and had inspired indescribable furor of applause. His review of Liszt even included a heroic personification with Napoleon. In Leipzig, Schumann was deeply impressed with Liszt's interpretations of his Noveletten, Op. 21 and Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17 (dedicated to Liszt), enthusiastically observing that, I feel as if I had known you twenty years. Yet a variety of events followed that diminished Liszt's glory in the eyes of the Schumanns. They became critical of the cult-like atmosphere that arose around his recitals, or Lisztomania as it came to be called; conceivably, this could be attributed to professional jealousy. Clara, in particular, came to loathe Liszt, noting in a letter to Joseph Joachim, I despise Liszt from the depths of my soul. She recorded a stunning diary entry a day after Liszt's death, in which she noted, He was an eminent keyboard virtuoso, but a dangerous example for the young...As a composer he was terrible. By contrast, Liszt did not share in these negative sentiments; no evidence suggests that he had any ill-regard for the Schumanns. In Weimar, he did much to promote Schumann's music, conducting performances of his Scenes from Faust and Manfred, during a time in which few orchestras expressed interest, and premiered his opera Genoveva. He later arranged a benefit concert for Clara following Robert's death, featuring Clara as soloist in Robert's Piano Concerto, an event that must have been exhilarating to witness. Regardless, her opinion of him would never change, despite his repeated gestures of courtesy and respect. Liszt's relationship with Schubert was a spiritual one, with music being the one and only link between the two men. That with the Schumanns was personal, with music influenced by a hero worship that would aggravate the relationship over time. Nonetheless, Liszt would remain devoted to and enthusiastic for the music and achievements of these composers. He would be a vital force in disseminating their music to a wider audience, as he would be with many other composers throughout his career. His primary means for accomplishing this was the piano transcription. Liszt and the Transcription Transcription versus Paraphrase Transcription and paraphrase were popular terms in nineteenth-century music, although certainly not unique to this period. Musicians understood that there were clear distinctions between these two terms, but as is often the case these distinctions could be blurred. Transcription, literally writing over, entails reworking or adapting a piece of music for a performance medium different from that of its original; arrangement is a possible synonym. Adapting is a key part of this process, for the success of a transcription relies on the transcriber's ability to adapt the piece to the different medium. As a result, the pre-existing material is generally kept intact, recognizable and intelligible; it is strict, literal, objective. Contextual meaning is maintained in the process, as are elements of style and form. Paraphrase, by contrast, implies restating something in a different manner, as in a rewording of a document for reasons of clarity. In nineteenth-century music, paraphrasing indicated elaborating a piece for purposes of expressive virtuosity, often as a vehicle for showmanship. Variation is an important element, for the source material may be varied as much as the paraphraser's imagination will allow; its purpose is metamorphosis. Transcription is adapting and arranging; paraphrasing is transforming and reworking. Transcription preserves the style of the original; paraphrase absorbs the original into a different style. Transcription highlights the original composer; paraphrase highlights the paraphraser. Approximately half of Liszt's compositional output falls under the category of transcription and paraphrase; it is noteworthy that he never used the term arrangement. Much of his early compositional activities were transcriptions and paraphrases of works of other composers, such as the symphonies of Beethoven and Berlioz, vocal music by Schubert, and operas by Donizetti and Bellini. It is conceivable that he focused so intently on work of this nature early in his career as a means to perfect his compositional technique, although transcription and paraphrase continued well after the technique had been mastered; this might explain why he drastically revised and rewrote many of his original compositions from the 1830s (such as the Transcendental Etudes and Paganini Etudes) in the 1850s. Charles Rosen, a sympathetic interpreter of Liszt's piano works, observes, The new revisions of the Transcendental Etudes are not revisions but concert paraphrases of the old, and their art lies in the technique of transformation. The Paganini etudes are piano transcriptions of violin etudes, and the Transcendental Etudes are piano transcriptions of piano etudes. The principles are the same. He concludes by noting, Paraphrase has shaded off into composition...Composition and paraphrase were not identical for him, but they were so closely interwoven that separation is impossible. The significance of transcription and paraphrase for Liszt the composer cannot be overstated, and the mutual influence of each needs to be better understood. Undoubtedly, Liszt the composer as we know him today would be far different had he not devoted so much of his career to transcribing and paraphrasing the music of others. He was perhaps one of the first composers to contend that transcription and paraphrase could be genuine art forms on equal par with original pieces; he even claimed to be the first to use these two terms to describe these classes of arrangements. Despite the success that Liszt achieved with this type of work, others viewed it with circumspection and criticism. Robert Schumann, although deeply impressed with Liszt's keyboard virtuosity, was harsh in his criticisms of the transcriptions. Schumann interpreted them as indicators that Liszt's virtuosity had hindered his compositional development and suggested that Liszt transcribed the music of others to compensate for his own compositional deficiencies. Nonetheless, Liszt's piano transcriptions, what he sometimes called partitions de piano (or piano scores), were instrumental in promoting composers whose music was unknown at the time or inaccessible in areas outside of major European capitals, areas that Liszt willingly toured during his Glanzzeit. To this end, the transcriptions had to be literal arrangements for the piano; a Beethoven symphony could not be introduced to an unknowing audience if its music had been subjected to imaginative elaborations and variations. The same would be true of the 1833 transcription of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique (composed only three years earlier), the astonishingly novel content of which would necessitate a literal and intelligible rendering. Opera, usually more popular and accessible for the general public, was a different matter, and in this realm Liszt could paraphrase the original and manipulate it as his imagination would allow without jeopardizing its reception; hence, the paraphrases on the operas of Bellini, Donizetti, Mozart, Meyerbeer and Verdi. Reminiscence was another term coined by Liszt for the opera paraphrases, as if the composer were reminiscing at the keyboard following a memorable evening at the opera. Illustration (reserved on two occasions for Meyerbeer) and fantasy were additional terms. The operas of Wagner were exceptions. His music was less suited to paraphrase due to its general lack of familiarity at the time. Transcription of Wagner's music was thus obligatory, as it was of Beethoven's and Berlioz's music; perhaps the composer himself insisted on this approach. Liszt's Lieder Transcriptions Liszt's initial encounters with Schubert's music, as mentioned previously, were with the Lieder. His first transcription of a Schubert Lied was Die Rose in 1833, followed by Lob der Tranen in 1837. Thirty-nine additional transcriptions appeared at a rapid pace over the following three years, and in 1846, the Schubert Lieder transcriptions would conclude, by which point he had completed fifty-eight, the most of any composer. Critical response to these transcriptions was highly favorable--aside from the view held by Schumann--particularly when Liszt himself played these pieces in concert. Some were published immediately by Anton Diabelli, famous for the theme that inspired Beethoven's variations. Others were published by the Viennese publisher Tobias Haslinger (one of Beethoven's and Schubert's publishers in the 1820s), who sold his reserves so quickly that he would repeatedly plead for more. However, Liszt's enthusiasm for work of this nature soon became exhausted, as he noted in a letter of 1839 to the publisher Breitkopf und Hartel: That good Haslinger overwhelms me with Schubert. I have just sent him twenty-four new songs (Schwanengesang and Winterreise), and for the moment I am rather tired of this work. Haslinger was justified in his demands, for the Schubert transcriptions were received with great enthusiasm. One Gottfried Wilhelm Fink, then editor of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, observed of these transcriptions: Nothing in recent memory has caused such sensation and enjoyment in both pianists and audiences as these arrangements...The demand for them has in no way been satisfied; and it will not be until these arrangements are seen on pianos everywhere. They have indeed made quite a splash. Eduard Hanslick, never a sympathetic critic of Liszt's music, acknowledged thirty years after the fact that, Liszt's transcriptions of Schubert Lieder were epoch-making. There was hardly a concert in which Liszt did not have to play one or two of them--even when they were not listed on the program. These transcriptions quickly became some of his most sough-after pieces, despite their extreme technical demands. Leading pianists of the day, such as Clara Wieck and Sigismond Thalberg, incorporated them into their concert programs immediately upon publication. Moreover, the transcriptions would serve as inspirations for other composers, such as Stephen Heller, Cesar Franck and later Leopold Godowsky, all of whom produced their own transcriptions of Schubert's Lieder. Liszt would transcribe the Lieder of other composers as well, including those by Mendelssohn, Chopin, Anton Rubinstein and even himself. Robert Schumann, of course, would not be ignored. The first transcription of a Schumann Lied was the celebrated Widmung from Myrten in 1848, the only Schumann transcription that Liszt completed during the composer's lifetime. (Regrettably, there is no evidence of Schumann's regard of this transcription, or even if he was aware of it.) From the years 1848-1881, Liszt transcribed twelve of Robert Schumann's Lieder (including one orchestral Lied) and three of Clara (one from each of her three published Lieder cycles); he would transcribe no other works of these two composers. The Schumann Lieder transcriptions, contrary to those of Schubert, are literal arrangements, posing, in general, far fewer demands on the pianist's technique. They are comparatively less imaginative in their treatment of the original material. Additionally, they seem to have been less valued in their day than the Schubert transcriptions, and it is noteworthy that none of the Schumann transcriptions bear dedications, as most of the Schubert transcriptions do. The greatest challenge posed by Lieder transcriptions, regardless of the composer or the nature of the transcription, was to combine the vocal and piano parts of the original such that the character of each would be preserved, a challenge unique to this form of transcription. Each part had to be intact and aurally recognizable, the vocal line in particular. Complications could be manifold in a Lied that featured dissimilar parts, such as Schubert's Auf dem Wasser zu singen, whose piano accompaniment depicts the rocking of the boat on the shimmering waves while the vocal line reflects on the passing of time. Similar complications would be encountered in Gretchen am Spinnrade, in which the ubiquitous sixteenth-note pattern in the piano's right hand epitomizes the ever-turning spinning wheel over which the soprano voice expresses feelings of longing and heartache. The resulting transcriptions for solo piano would place exceptional demands on the pianist. The complications would be far less imposing in instances in which voice and piano were less differentiated, as in many of Schumann's Lieder that Liszt transcribed. The piano parts in these Lieder are true accompaniments for the voice, providing harmonic foundation and rhythmic support by doubling the vocal line throughout. The transcriptions, thus, are strict and literal, with far fewer demands on both pianist and transcriber. In all of Liszt's Lieder transcriptions, regardless of the way in which the two parts are combined, the melody (i.e. the vocal line) is invariably the focal point; the melody should sing on the piano, as if it were the voice. The piano part, although integral to contributing to the character of the music, is designed to function as accompaniment. A singing melody was a crucial objective in nineteenth-century piano performance, which in part might explain the zeal in transcribing and paraphrasing vocal music for the piano. Friedrich Wieck, father and teacher of Clara Schumann, stressed this point repeatedly in his 1853 treatise Clavier und Gesang (Piano and Song): When I speak in general of singing, I refer to that species of singing which is a form of beauty, and which is a foundation for the most refined and most perfect interpretation of music; and, above all things, I consider the culture of beautiful tones the basis for the finest possible touch on the piano. In many respects, the piano and singing should explain and supplement each other. They should mutually assist in expressing the sublime and the noble, in forms of unclouded beauty. Much of Liszt's piano music should be interpreted with this concept in mind, the Lieder transcriptions and opera paraphrases, in particular. To this end, Liszt provided numerous written instructions to the performer to emphasize the vocal line in performance, with Italian directives such as un poco marcato il canto, accentuato assai il canto and ben pronunziato il canto. Repeated indications of cantando,singend and espressivo il canto stress the significance of the singing tone. As an additional means of achieving this and providing the performer with access to the poetry, Liszt insisted, at what must have been a publishing novelty at the time, on printing the words of the Lied in the music itself. Haslinger, seemingly oblivious to Liszt's intent, initially printed the poems of the early Schubert transcriptions separately inside the front covers. Liszt argued that the transcriptions must be reprinted with the words underlying the notes, exactly as Schubert had done, a request that was honored by printing the words above the right-hand staff. Liszt also incorporated a visual scheme for distinguishing voice and accompaniment, influenced perhaps by Chopin, by notating the accompaniment in cue size. His transcription of Robert Schumann's Fruhlings Ankunft features the vocal line in normal size, the piano accompaniment in reduced size, an unmistakable guide in a busy texture as to which part should be emphasized: Example 1. Schumann-Liszt Fruhlings Ankunft, mm. 1-2. The same practice may be found in the transcription of Schumann's An die Turen will ich schleichen. In this piece, the performer must read three staves, in which the baritone line in the central staff is to be shared between the two hands based on the stem direction of the notes: Example 2. Schumann-Liszt An die Turen will ich schleichen, mm. 1-5. This notational practice is extremely beneficial in this instance, given the challenge of reading three staves and the manner in which the vocal line is performed by the two hands. Curiously, Liszt did not use this practice in other transcriptions. Approaches in Lieder Transcription Liszt adopted a variety of approaches in his Lieder transcriptions, based on the nature of the source material, the ways in which the vocal and piano parts could be combined and the ways in which the vocal part could sing. One approach, common with strophic Lieder, in which the vocal line would be identical in each verse, was to vary the register of the vocal part. The transcription of Lob der Tranen, for example, incorporates three of the four verses of the original Lied, with the register of the vocal line ascending one octave with each verse (from low to high), as if three different voices were participating. By the conclusion, the music encompasses the entire range of Liszt's keyboard to produce a stunning climactic effect, and the variety of register of the vocal line provides a welcome textural variety in the absence of the words. The three verses of the transcription of Auf dem Wasser zu singen follow the same approach, in which the vocal line ascends from the tenor, to the alto and to the soprano registers with each verse. Fruhlingsglaube adopts the opposite approach, in which the vocal line descends from soprano in verse 1 to tenor in verse 2, with the second part of verse 2 again resuming the soprano register; this is also the case in Das Wandern from Mullerlieder. Gretchen am Spinnrade posed a unique problem. Since the poem's narrator is female, and the poem represents an expression of her longing for her lover Faust, variation of the vocal line's register, strictly speaking, would have been impractical. For this reason, the vocal line remains in its original register throughout, relentlessly colliding with the sixteenth-note pattern of the accompaniment. One exception may be found in the fifth and final verse in mm. 93-112, at which point the vocal line is notated in a higher register and doubled in octaves. This sudden textural change, one that is readily audible, was a strategic means to underscore Gretchen's mounting anxiety (My bosom urges itself toward him. Ah, might I grasp and hold him! And kiss him as I would wish, at his kisses I should die!). The transcription, thus, becomes a vehicle for maximizing the emotional content of the poem, an exceptional undertaking with the general intent of a transcription. Registral variation of the vocal part also plays a crucial role in the transcription of Erlkonig. Goethe's poem depicts the death of a child who is apprehended by a supernatural Erlking, and Schubert, recognizing the dramatic nature of the poem, carefully depicted the characters (father, son and Erlking) through unique vocal writing and accompaniment patterns: the Lied is a dramatic entity. Liszt, in turn, followed Schubert's characterization in this literal transcription, yet took it an additional step by placing the register of the father's vocal line in the baritone range, that of the son in the soprano range and that of the Erlking in the highest register, options that would not have been available in the version for voice and piano. Additionally, Liszt labeled each appearance of each character in the score, a means for guiding the performer in interpreting the dramatic qualities of the Lied. As a result, the drama and energy of the poem are enhanced in this transcription; as with Gretchen am Spinnrade, the transcriber has maximized the content of the original. Elaboration may be found in certain Lieder transcriptions that expand the performance to a level of virtuosity not found in the original; in such cases, the transcription approximates the paraphrase. Schubert's Du bist die Ruh, a paradigm of musical simplicity, features an uncomplicated piano accompaniment that is virtually identical in each verse. In Liszt's transcription, the material is subjected to a highly virtuosic treatment that far exceeds the original, including a demanding passage for the left hand alone in the opening measures and unique textural writing in each verse. The piece is a transcription in virtuosity; its art, as Rosen noted, lies in the technique of transformation. Elaboration may entail an expansion of the musical form, as in the extensive introduction to Die Forelle and a virtuosic middle section (mm. 63-85), both of which are not in the original. Also unique to this transcription are two cadenzas that Liszt composed in response to the poetic content. The first, in m. 93 on the words und eh ich es gedacht (and before I could guess it), features a twisted chromatic passage that prolongs and thereby heightens the listener's suspense as to the fate of the trout (which is ultimately caught). The second, in m. 108 on the words Betrogne an (and my blood boiled as I saw the betrayed one), features a rush of diminished-seventh arpeggios in both hands, epitomizing the poet's rage at the fisherman for catching the trout. Less frequent are instances in which the length of the original Lied was shortened in the transcription, a tendency that may be found with certain strophic Lieder (e.g., Der Leiermann, Wasserflut and Das Wandern). Another transcription that demonstrates Liszt's readiness to modify the original in the interests of the poetic content is Standchen, the seventh transcription from Schubert's Schwanengesang. Adapted from Act II of Shakespeare's Cymbeline, the poem represents the repeated beckoning of a man to his lover. Liszt transformed the Lied into a miniature drama by transcribing the vocal line of the first verse in the soprano register, that of the second verse in the baritone register, in effect, creating a dialogue between the two lovers. In mm. 71-102, the dialogue becomes a canon, with one voice trailing the other like an echo (as labeled in the score) at the distance of a beat. As in other instances, the transcription resembles the paraphrase, and it is perhaps for this reason that Liszt provided an ossia version that is more in the nature of a literal transcription. The ossia version, six measures shorter than Schubert's original, is less demanding technically than the original transcription, thus representing an ossia of transcription and an ossia of piano technique. The Schumann Lieder transcriptions, in general, display a less imaginative treatment of the source material. Elaborations are less frequently encountered, and virtuosity is more restricted, as if the passage of time had somewhat tamed the composer's approach to transcriptions; alternatively, Liszt was eager to distance himself from the fierce virtuosity of his early years. In most instances, these transcriptions are literal arrangements of the source material, with the vocal line in its original form combined with the accompaniment, which often doubles the vocal line in the original Lied. Widmung, the first of the Schumann transcriptions, is one exception in the way it recalls the virtuosity of the Schubert transcriptions of the 1830s. Particularly striking is the closing section (mm. 58-73), in which material of the opening verse (right hand) is combined with the triplet quarter notes (left hand) from the second section of the Lied (mm. 32-43), as if the transcriber were attempting to reconcile the different material of these two sections. Fruhlingsnacht resembles a paraphrase by presenting each of the two verses in differing registers (alto for verse 1, mm. 3-19, and soprano for verse 2, mm. 20-31) and by concluding with a virtuosic section that considerably extends the length of the original Lied. The original tonalities of the Lieder were generally retained in the transcriptions, showing that the tonality was an important part of the transcription process. The infrequent instances of transposition were done for specific reasons. In 1861, Liszt transcribed two of Schumann's Lieder, one from Op. 36 (An den Sonnenschein), another from Op. 27 (Dem roten Roslein), and merged these two pieces in the collection 2 Lieder; they share only the common tonality of A major. His choice for combining these two Lieder remains unknown, but he clearly recognized that some tonal variety would be needed, for which reason Dem roten Roslein was transposed to C>= major. The collection features An den Sonnenschein in A major (with a transition to the new tonality), followed by Dem roten Roslein in C>= major (without a change of key signature), and concluding with a reprise of An den Sonnenschein in A major. A three-part form was thus established with tonal variety provided by keys in third relations (A-C>=-A); in effect, two of Schumann's Lieder were transcribed into an archetypal song without words. In other instances, Liszt treated tonality and tonal organization as important structural ingredients, particularly in the transcriptions of Schubert's Lieder cycles, i.e. Schwanengesang, Winterreise a...