# "Over the Rainbow" Virtuosic Transcription (original)



## MasterRaro (11 mo ago)

Hey everyone,

A while back I challenged myself to write a transcription of the iconic "Over the Rainbow," which is no doubt best enjoyed sung by Judy Garland in the Wizard of Oz. The inspiration for this was sort of a mix between just playing around and perhaps channeling my inner Rachmaninov.

The transcription was a very short-lived idea, so this is not a totally ideal performance... but it's the only time I played it publicly.

I believe at the time of coming up with this, I was working on Rachmaninov's Polka de V.R., which is a "transcription" of a dinky Franz Behr polka, but in the most liberal sense of a transcription - Rachmaninov really had his way with it! He turned pretty cheesy music into a masterpiece of unbelievably inventive and virtuosic display. Here, I'm taking pretty beloved music and making it... well.. I guess making it something _else_, not something better. 

I confess that I hastily put this together a couple weeks before this performance, and I actually made it much better afterward, but then dropped the idea altogether, all within the course of month or something. I suppose I'm more inclined to write original stuff that never sees the light of day than I am to make transcriptions of popular music









Anyway, I'm opening myself up here on a public forum looking forward to some good conversation and feedback, soberly aware of the probable chance of snarky criticism.









With appreciation! 

M


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

No snark from me. Some interesting chord substitutions that Serge would have been proud of. It'd probably sound nice with a 2nd Piano Concerto (you know the one) backing of lush strings.
Good adapted pastiche nicely played and worked out.


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## VoiceFromTheEther (Aug 6, 2021)

Feels like a legit scene from one of them biographical movies. Arrangement and performance well done!


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## MasterRaro (11 mo ago)

I appreciate both of these comments! Thank you


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

It's really quite nice. Had I been at a recital you gave and that arrangement was at the end, I'd been quite pleased.


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## MasterRaro (11 mo ago)

Vasks said:


> It's really quite nice. Had I been at a recital you gave and that arrangement was at the end, I'd been quite pleased.


Thank you! That's exactly what I did... actually, the first half of the program was a meaty selection of Bach and Brahms, so I lightened up the second half with five virtuosic transcriptions in a row, including the one I composed. It went Rachmaninov - Polka de V.R., Schumann/Liszt - "Widmung," Earl Wild - "Embraceable You," Art Tatum - Humoresque, and then my "Over the Rainbow." It felt like playing five encores in a row... and man was it a LOT of notes in under 20 minutes haha


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