# Improvising transcriptions



## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Do any of you improvise transcriptions or arrangements?

I do it quite a lot. I usually use the piano and violin scores to improvise transcriptions of many famous violin concerti.


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## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

Sometimes, when accompanying dance classes. I have a few pieces that are actually lieder or pieces for a solo instrument plus piano, and I cobble something together on the fly. It works ok enough for the purpose, but I don't really love the results musically.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Burroughs said:


> Do any of you improvise transcriptions or arrangements?
> 
> I do it quite a lot. I usually use the piano and violin scores to improvise transcriptions of many famous violin concerti.


It's called sight-reading a score -- and they're often reductive, on the fly leaving in or out what is necessary to the whole which fits hands negotiating the keyboard.

An arrangement implies a bit more of some degree of creative license has been taken with the music, and / or its structure, as well.

My limit was an earlier Mozart Symphony with Clarinets and horns: sight-reading involving Bass Viol down one octave, reading alto clef for the violas, and transposing the horns and clarinets... about my limit, I suppose.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

PetrB said:


> It's called sight-reading a score -- and they're often reductive, on the fly leaving in or out what is necessary to the whole which fits hands negotiating the keyboard.
> 
> An arrangement implies a bit more of some degree of creative license has been taken with the music, and / or its structure, as well.
> 
> My limit was an earlier Mozart Symphony with Clarinets and horns: sight-reading involving Bass Viol down one octave, reading alto clef for the violas, and transposing the horns and clarinets... about my limit, I suppose.


My limit was Mendelssohn's Violin concerto. I can just about do it but when the Violin starts interweaving with the orchestra it gets quite difficult.


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## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

Let me guess, PetrB is talking about playing a full orchestra score on the piano at sight....


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

hreichgott said:


> Let me guess, PetrB is talking about playing a full orchestra score on the piano at sight....


a-yep, my skill (surveyed / done decades ago) a 101a level at that compared to the big boys and girls.

Pianist composer Bill Evans sight-read Le Sacre du Printemps at the piano from score, with rafts of transposing instruments as well as the complex mixed meters and rhythms....

Saint-Saens and Liszt could read from score and give a fine reduction... multiple staves and clefs, instruments written one second below pitch and then played one octave up or down, etc. all just not a problem 

Remarkable ability -- which can be learned and practiced, but I think it a skill possessed by very few.


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