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Arrangements are often belittled as second-hand, second-class music. We’ll discover their potential for stunning originality.
A pianist and a scholar of Franz Liszt show us the profound originality possible in derivative music like Liszt’s piano renditions of Beethoven’s symphonies.
In Episode 2 of Rearranged, a classical music scholar and a pianist will look under the hood of Franz Liszt’s solo piano transcriptions of Beethoven’s nine symphonies to discover the vast originality possible in derivative music.
From SoundCloud: In Franz Liszt's solo piano arrangements of Beethoven's symphonies, Liszt scholar Alan Walker discovers that composers are not as original as they like to think they are, and that "no other art has anything to compare with the arrangement."
Because arrangements are derivative music, based on existing works, they have carried a reputation as second-class music for centuries. Arrangers have been diminished, belittled, insulted, and even sued! In Episode 2 of Rearranged, we’ll discover the astonishing artistry and creativity and, yes, originality in derivative masterworks like Franz Liszt’s rearrangement of all nine Beethoven’s symphonies for solo piano. And we’ll talk to a pianist who has played all nine about the originality he discovered in Liszt transcripts—and the originality he introduced into those transcripts himself.
Guests:
Christopher Taylor, pianist, professor of piano, Mead Witter School of Music, University of Wisconsin-Madison, https://music.wisc.edu/faculty/christopher-taylor/
Dr. Alan Walker, Professor Emeritus, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. https://experts.mcmaster.ca/display/walkera
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Audio of Alan Walker is from "In Defence of Arrangements," lecture, Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., November 9, 2013, permission granted by author (available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quFtSrro_Xc), and a lecture recorded specifically for this episode, received October 31, 2020.
Thanks to:
Christopher Taylor
Alan Walker
Mom and Dad for having a piano that actually has a malfunctioning D key
The theme music and other scoring music for Rearranged was written and recorded by Lawrence Lanahan.
Music discussed:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 “Choral," Otto Klemperer, Philharmonia Orchestra, Warner Classics, 1958/2020. https://www.warnerclassics. com/release/beethoven-9- klemperer
LISZT, F.: Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (Transcription) (Liszt Complete Piano Music, Vol. 21) (Scherbakov), Konstantin Scherbakov, piano, Naxos, 2004. https://www.naxos.com/ CatalogueDetail/?id=8.557366
Concert Paraphrase on Rigoletto, S. 434, Piano - Prodiges Season 6, Paul Ji, Warner Classics, 2020. https://www.warnerclassics. com/release/paul-ji
