MUSIC.
TRANSCRIPTION.* Ma. H. P. ELLINOFORD, the well-known organist of St. George's Hall, Liverpool, has written a most capable treatise on arranging choral and instrumental music for the organ. His book is important, not only because it is the first to deal adequately with the subject, but also because so many people hear orchestral music only in the form of organ transcriptions. In the City of London alone, it is possible to hear an organ recital on practically every mid-day in the week, and half, at least, of the items played at these recital]; are arrangements of orchestral works. Before The Art of Transcribing for the Organ. By Herbert ir. =Wank New York ; The Et W. Gray Co, London; Novae, 115.90 net-1 dealing with Mr. Ellingford's book, it will be as well to considet briefly the problem of transcription in tote.
Many purists wholly disapprove of transcription. The composer selects the medium that best conveys his ideas and only that medium can convey them. If, they say, X, the dis- tinguished pianist, chooses to play all music upon his pianoforte, it is because X is a vain creature who thinks that all music is merely a whipping-boy for his own virtuosity. (There are examples in the Virginal Books of hymn tunes arranged appar- ently to show off the prowess of some illustrious performer.
Musical vanity is no new thing.) Of course, we may argue, X Is a great interpreter, who can better convey the composer's meaning through the limited mediupi of a pianoforte than can Y, the eminent conductor, with his mammoth orchestra, because Y thinks all music must be interpreted in terms of Tschallrovsky. However, if our purist objects to transcription as such, the less a purist he. Practically all great composers from Bach to Sir Edward Eiger have made transcriptions that are undoubtedly works of art. Indeed, we might say that many of Beethoven's sonatas are in effect pianoforte arrangements of orchestral works, while Schumann's symphonies are simply orchestral transcrip- tions of pianoforte works. There is a reason for this. Compo- sition is transcription. The moment a musical thought leaves the composer's brain and is put on paper and moulded by artificial means into an artistic form transcription has begun.
Beethoven instinctively sought expression in orchestral music; when he wrote for the pianoforte his arrangement of the raw musical idea was naturally influenced by his orchestral predilec-
tions. Schumann thought in terms of the pianoforte and his compositions for all other instruments are pianistio. Of course, a composer may, and frequently does, return to the raw musical thought and endeavour to give it more adequate expression in some other form. If we will persist in our irritating " Ah ! but a man's reach should exceed his grasp," can we blame him for stretching out another hand ?—for that again is transcription in the recognised sense of the word. When another musician makes the transcription the situation is not greatly altered.
We must judge him by his success or unsuccess in retaining the basic idea of the original composition, and not in the spirit of the professor of the Paris Conservatoire, who said of Cesar
Franck's Symphony : "That a symphony ? My dear sir, who ever heard of a cor Anglais in a symphony ? Just you mention a single symphony by Haydn or Beethoven with a cor Anglais in it. . . This music may be whatever you please, but it certainly never will be a symphony l" A transcription is often made for reasons of utility. A composition may be inaccessible in its original form; all the same, people will want either to hear it or to play it. Thus there have actually been versions of the Hallelujah Chorus for the concertina, and even for a flute duet. Good orchestras do not exist in every town in England. Indeed, it would be difficult to name a dozen towns where there are frequent performances of good orchestral music (can we boast that we are not Ince Germany in this res- pect ? ), but there are, at least, many good organs in England.
Therefore organ transcriptions must take the place of the real thing. There is no danger in this if the transcription is regarded from the right point of view. Transcriptions for the organ are not ordinarily made by heaven-gifted seers, whose reach and grasp exceed that of the original composer, but they arc fre- quently worthy reproductions made by skilled craftsmen. A
copy of the Mona Lisa by the three-colour process may safely adorn the house of a man who dislikes the Channel crossing,
but he must not think that Leonardo painted by the three.
colour process. The organ can, at least, reproduce orchestral music as efficiently as the three-colour process can reproduce a painting. However, this fatal adaptability must not lead us astray. A large organ with flutes, clarinets, oboes, trumpets and string-toned stops can play the sedulous ape to the orchestra, and under Mr. Ellingford's efficient guidance its activities may be more sedulous than apeish. But always, though the colours are in the right place, they are not the vital colours of the original.
The organ bas, of course, in its diapason tone, a quality that is wholly its own. That quality is safe as long as we remember the real function of the organ. Unfortunately there is a tendency in these days to orchestralize the organ, and what are known as concert organs are built on a grander scale every year. All sorts of ingenious mechanical contrivances, stop-controls, and other accessories, tend, alas ! to turn the "huge house of sounds" into a showman's mammoth box of tricks,
C. H.
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