# Composers on composers



## Donboy (Aug 13, 2009)

Are there any instances of composers approving/disapproving of other composers' arrangements of their work, or was/is there a code not to mess with another's work until they're dead?


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## Ian Elliott (Nov 15, 2010)

Brahms and Tchaikovsky, who had the same birthday, thought little of each other's music. Brahms thought Tchaikovsky's music vulgar and self-indulgent. Tchaikovsky thought Brahms's music dull and complained that he kept 'adding ideas,' i.e. Brahms kept building motifs and phrases. Brahms's style makes quite a bit of use of ambiguity of phrasing, which was anathena to the Russian, who liked clear-cut, well-sculpted melodies.


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## Fsharpmajor (Dec 14, 2008)

Donboy said:


> Are there any instances of composers approving/disapproving of other composers' arrangements of their work, or was/is there a code not to mess with another's work until they're dead?


There's this example of a misunderstanding between Alberto Ginastera and the prog-rock musician Keith Emerson over an arrangement by Emerson. From Wikipedia:

*The progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer brought Ginastera attention outside of modern classical music circles when they adapted the fourth movement of his first piano concerto and recorded it on their popular album Brain Salad Surgery under the title "Toccata". They recorded the piece not only with Ginastera's permission, but with his endorsement. In 1973, when they were recording the album, Keith Emerson met with Ginastera at his home in Switzerland and played a recording of his arrangement for him. Ginastera is reported to have said, "Diabolical!". Emerson misunderstood Ginastera's meaning: Ginastera spoke almost no English and meant that their interpretation was frightening, which had been his intent when he wrote it; Emerson, being British, took it to mean "awful". Emerson was so upset that he was prepared to scrap the piece until Ginastera's wife intervened saying that he approved. Ginastera later said, "You have captured the essence of my music, and no one's ever done that before."*


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Fsharpmajor said:


> There's this example of a misunderstanding between Alberto Ginastera and the prog-rock musician Keith Emerson over an arrangement by Emerson. From Wikipedia:


Interesting story.

As far as other composers arranging other composers' work, I suppose Bruckner was so intent on having his pieces performed that he didn't object outright to cuts by others. I think that loosely fits into the "arranging" category.

Erik Satie didn't mind Debussy orchestrating two of his Gymnopedies, even though it ended up sounding more like Debussy than Satie.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

Arrangements are far more common than you seem to think - if only for expediency of performance.

However, when the composer is living, you have to remember copyright. When I arranged Philip Glass's _Songs from liquid days_ for soloists, chorus and orchestra, I first had to get permission from Chester Music (Glass's publisher outside the US: I am in the UK) before I could even copy the notes into Sibelius.

When the arrangement was finished, Mr Glass sat with me in the stalls of the Royal Festival Hall (we had just been rehearsing for his sixtieth birthday concert), and went through my ms page by page, making a few suggestions (which I diplomatically interpreted as instructions) after which the arrangement became available - from Dunvagen in the US and Chester for the rest of the world (http://www.chesternovello.com/default.aspx?TabId=2432&State_3041=2&workId_3041=12818).

Had he not liked it, the arrangement would simply not have been published by these publishers and, of course, I would have been prevented from publishing it myself.

Ultimately the publisher has the rights to the music, not the composer, and one can only hope they bear his (or her) wishes in mind. In a different area, I didn't notice Schott vetoing the abuse of Ligeti's music in _2001_, something which the composer was very unhappy about.


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