Pianophilia

Does anyone have Gottschalk's Le Bananier in the Czerny 4 hand transcription or The Banjo in the 2 piano Guy Maier arrangement?

alpha wrote:Does anyone have Gottschalk's Le Bananier in the Czerny 4 hand transcription or The Banjo in the 2 piano Guy Maier arrangement?

I would never have guessed that Czerny made a 4 hand transcription of The Banjo, but I see that Gottschalk wrote it in 1855 and Czerney died in 1857, so it's possible.

Czerny transcribed Le Bananier, not the Banjo. It is discussed in Frederick Starr's Gottschalk biography.

Leonard Bernstein's underrated second symphony, "The Age of Anxiety," is based on a narrative poem by W.H. Auden. It sounds like a piano concerto, but in fact it is program music, in which the piano represents the story's protagonist -- much the same way the solo cello represents the title character in Richard Strauss's "Don Quixote."

One of the highlights of "The Age of Anxiety" is the symphony's scherzo, "The Masque," scored for piano, harp, celesta, and a large percussion section. The first time I ever heard it performed was as a piano solo, in a recital by the late David Bar-Illan; I have his excellent recording of the piece.

I've made my own piano solo arrangement (see below), and it varies somewhat from Bar-Illan's. Most notably, Bar-Illan drops the eleven measures in which the piano is tacet (bars 216-227 in my score), and the melody is carried by the celesta, harp, and xylophone. I've chosen to transcribe that section, because without it the piece seems misshapen.

One other point of interest. Before he performed the piece, Bar-Illan talked about it, and claimed that the melody introduced at bar 67 was in fact a variation on the nursery rhyme tune "Rock-a-bye Baby." I have no idea whether this is true.

Blair Fairchild (1877 - 1933). American composer and diplomat. Along with Charles Wakefield Cadman, Charles Sanford Skilton, Arthur Nevin, and Arthur Farwell, among others, he is sometimes grouped among the Indianists, although he had only a marginal association with their work.

Fairchild was born in Massachusetts, the son of Boston investor Charles Fairchild. He studied at Harvard College and in Florence before embarking, after a stint in business, on a career in the diplomatic corps. He first saw service in Constantinople before being transferred to Tehran; in 1903 he settled in Paris, where he pursued further studies in music before becoming a composer. He died in 1933.

Fairchild had studied music while at Harvard, attending classes taught by both John Knowles Paine and Walter Spalding. Upon his arrival in Paris he sought further study with Charles-Marie Widor. His musical style was based on music he had heard during his diplomatic travels, and among his early works were two tone poems upon Persian legends, Zal and Shah Feridoun. He also wrote much in smaller forms, including many pieces for chamber groups, songs and choruses. Fairchild's music has been described as derived from the same influences as the work of Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Igor Stravinsky.
I have posted his excellent "En Voyage".

Malcolm

Thank you for these.
Here is what is currently available from Durand:

http://www.di-arezzo.com/france/partiti ... piano.html

Dannen wrote:Leonard Bernstein's underrated second symphony, "The Age of Anxiety," is based on a narrative poem by W.H. Auden. It sounds like a piano concerto, but in fact it is program music, in which the piano represents the story's protagonist -- much the same way the solo cello represents the title character in Richard Strauss's "Don Quixote."

One of the highlights of "The Age of Anxiety" is the symphony's scherzo, "The Masque," scored for piano, harp, celesta, and a large percussion section. The first time I ever heard it performed was as a piano solo, in a recital by the late David Bar-Illan; I have his excellent recording of the piece.

I've made my own piano solo arrangement (see below), and it varies somewhat from Bar-Illan's. Most notably, Bar-Illan drops the eleven measures in which the piano is tacet (bars 216-227 in my score), and the melody is carried by the celesta, harp, and xylophone. I've chosen to transcribe that section, because without it the piece seems misshapen.

One other point of interest. Before he performed the piece, Bar-Illan talked about it, and claimed that the melody introduced at bar 67 was in fact a variation on the nursery rhyme tune "Rock-a-bye Baby." I have no idea whether this is true.

Thanks for Bernstein! Any transcription of Bernstein is always very welcome, especially one this good.

Is there any chance that somebody has a transcription of "Danzón" from Bernstein's "Fancy Free"?

I have a casette recording by Dag Achatz that I made some time ago from a radio broadcast - I do not know if he has published his transcription of the whole Suite.

Miguel

I mentioned this ages back when we posted a few works by Arthur Farwell (1872--1952)......his Pawnee Horses from Op 20.

Malcolm

Thank you, Mr. B. The piece is also available from google books, actually.
http://books.google.com/books?id=v5AHAQ ... &q&f=false