A Collection of Ten Schubert Songs Transcribed for the Piano

Abstract

A Collection of Ten Schubert Songs Transcribed for the Piano Yoni Levyatov Doctor of Musical Arts Temple University, 2012 Doctoral Advisor Committee Chair: Dr. Charles Abramovic The objective of this project is the creation of a collection of ten songs by Franz Schubert, freely transcribed for solo piano: 1) "Gute Nacht" D.911 2) "An die Laute" D.905 3) "Memnon" D.541 4) "Wilkommen und Abschied" D.767 5) "Greisengesang" D.778 6) "Todesmusik" D.758 7) "Der Goldschmiedsgesell" D.560 8) "Das Fischermädchen" D.957 9) "Das Lied im Grünen" D.917 10) "Der Strom" D.565 These are written bearing in mind the general history of piano transcriptions as originated (in the modern sense) by Franz Liszt, the greatest of all transcribers for the piano, as well as other figures, such as Feruccio Busoni and Leopold Godowsky. The primary reason behind Liszt's idea of transcribing several Schubert song cycles, as well as singular lieder, was to popularize those works, and thus make them available to the common 19th century amateur, who was quite at home at the piano and usually wished to be able to reproduce favorite pieces with his own two hands. or in a four-hand collaboration. Liszt was also interested in raising awareness of these works, which were less popular and treated less seriously than they are today. At present such transcriptions may be done not only for the reasons described above, but also as a modern stylization, utilizing the many pianistic and compositional devices that have emerged since the 19th century. Some of the songs transcribed in my collection deviate considerably from the original accompaniment textures. Schubert, particularly in the strophic songs, tends to use consistent figures that hardly change with each repetition. The transcription medium allows an expansion of that, as well as use of many colorful and expressive pianistic idioms to reflect the text and the different stages of plot development. A rather extreme example of transcription taken to the point of re-composition that I discuss and use as a reference is the Schubert's Winterreise-Eine komponierte Interpretation (1993) by Hans Zender - a piece in which the composer explores the textual and musical possibilities in orchestrating his interpretation of the score for a tenor and a small orchestra. A similar treatment of Schubert, but for solo piano, as opposed to an orchestra, is one of the novelties in this project. The song that has been transcribed with a particular reference to Zender's work is Gute Nacht, which opens both Zender's and Liszt's transcriptions, following Schubert's original. Another significant point of reference in this project is taken from Liszt's transcription of "Das Fischermädchen" " from the "Schwanengesang" D.957. It is one of only two lieder in my collection also existing in another transcription which has been a part of the common piano repertoire. Liszt's treatment stands somewhat in between what would be a more common and literal transcription of the day in the 1840s and Zender's psychological re-composition and my transcription pays an homage to that. The implications of this project may bring a wider recognition to the validity of the transcription genre, and an expansion of the modern piano transcriptions repertoire, which is somewhat limited due to its unpopularity among current composers.