Introduction
To provide a context for elaborating on the topic of guitar transcriptions, a short overview of the history of the classical guitar and the role of transcriptions is given. To evaluate the added value of my transcription of Bartók's six dances with respect to the original work and the current repertoire for the guitar, it is essential to be aware of what has already been done so far in the field of guitar transcriptions. In doing so, certain trends in the character, method and virtuosity of the transcription become apparent.
Before delving in, it is necessary to understand that the history of guitar transcriptions is closely related to the development of the instrument itself and its repertoire throughout history. Harvey Turnbull (1936-2017) wrote the book The Guitar from the Renaissance to the Present Day. Regarding the article Noted Guitar Historian Dies: Harvey Turnbull (1936-2017) by Graham Wade, Turnbull opened the way to a more objective approach to guitar scholarship, a methodology which set a precedent to enable subsequent scholars to explore the entirety of guitar history in astonishing detail.1 The modern instrument, with its current repertoire, has never been as established as it is today. For centuries it remained mainly an amateur and popular instrument. For four centuries, 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th, the classical guitar experienced new revivals, but always returned to its origins as a popular instrument.2 Many guitarists, myself included, find this unfortunate. Turnbull, calls it a source of strength: "To continue its life as a folk instrument, the guitar had to remain uncomplicated, and one can pay tribute to those many people who, because they were unambitious in their music-making, enabled the guitar to survive long enough to become the most active and most fretted instrument of the present day".3 For this reason, the early four- and five-string instruments were artistically and technically limited. The addition of the sixth string opened up possibilities, but the enthusiasm could not be sustained. Therefore, in the 18th and 19th centuries, almost every classical guitarist made transcriptions of famous composers of his/her time to please the public and to create a repertoire for him/herself. The repertoire and transcriptions created during these four centuries include great works and high-quality compositions. It inspired 20th century guitarists to make further contributions, but the guitar still had to make its own future.4
Reflection
Throughout the guitar history, there are clearly different genres and styles that remain popular for transcription. The Baroque and Renaissance periods, the Classical and Romantic periods and the 20th century are, in this order, the most popular periods. In addition, works from other genres are often transcribed. Given the history of the classical guitar as an underappreciated folk instrument, this is a logical observation. The need is highest to transcribe works from before the 18th century since the modern classical guitar did not exist back then. After that, the classical and romantic periods are popular as the guitar remained under the radar there. The bulk of the existing repertoire comes from the 20th century. Consequently, most of the transcriptions are made from earlier periods.
In addition, a clear evolution can be seen throughout the history of guitar transcriptions. At the time of Segovia, the idea of authenticity was not really questioned. Regarding the recent video about Segovia, featuring guitar composer Stephen Goss on Tonebase5, an online education platform, Segovia’s transcriptions are notorious for being highly idiomatic, merging music form various periods into one romantic style. He was mostly authentic towards the guitar and his own context and taste but did not really cared about the historical context. He transcribed each work with the aim of bringing out his preferred qualities of the instrument as much as possible, like the expressiveness of the instrument through emphasizing the different colors and melodic qualities. When he was commissioning new works from non-guitarist composers, he never let them discover and play with the idiomatic characteristics. They composed the piece and then he transcribed it for the guitar the way he wanted. In that way he avoided open strings, rasguado and other characteristics of the guitar because he didn’t like them and they didn’t fit in his romantic, nostalgic style.6
With the rise of the HIP movement, guitarists began to question Segovia's transcriptions and make their own. Thus, the focus shifted from authenticity to the instrument and the transcriber’s style to authenticity to the style and composer of the original work. This meant that transcriptions thus became more virtuosic. This pushed the limits of the instrument and the virtuosity of the player. The possibilities of the instrument were questioned, but more importantly, developed. This was further put into practice by ambitious transcriptions in the early 20th century by Yamashita and Fisk. In this process, the focus of authenticity was then shifted back to the instrument. What is possible on the guitar? In the last century, the idea of authenticity to the style and composer is allinz conscious. The main focus of the transcription is still on the development of the instrument and the creation of new repertoire, but authenticity is also usually maintained to the original style and context of the work. If not, that decision is usually made consciously.
The guitar has reached in the past century a stable curve of growth, as well as in technical development, elaboration of repertoire and in status. Throughout the history it always fluctuated in curves of popularity and disappearance. Turnbull states that the revival of early music and reaction against 19th century desire for volume has meant that the guitar’s intimate voice has been listened to with greater sympathy7
Besides this, there is an improving educational environment for as well amateurs and aspiring professionals with guitar departments in almost every conservatory and more and more technical schools. This a very recent development we can not take for a granted as young guitarists. Julian Bream and John Williams couldn’t study at the Royal College of Music because there was no guitar department. Even Judicael Perroy, born in 1973, the great guitarist and pedagogue currently teaching in Geneva and Lille, tells in an interview for Classical Guitar Magazine the following: “And when I started studying, at the beginning of the ’80s, there were a lot of classical guitar teachers who were not themselves classical guitarists; they played electric guitar in bals populaires [local dances]. Now you have all these good players who are my age, teaching in conservatories and in private studios.” 8 As a young guitarist, it is easy to forget the troubled history of the guitar, its struggle to become a worthy instrument among the other classical orchestral instruments. It is not because there is now a large repertoire and the possibility of studying classical guitar in universities all over the world that there is no longer a need to develop the repertoire and emancipate it. In my opinion, it is still an instrument that lives too much in its own closed guitar world, with its own festivals, composers, societies, repertoire, ... As Turnbull already noted in 1974: “Adverse criticism and the guitar are old friends. Sometimes the criticism has been justified, and if it is constructive, this is all to the good. However one cannot help the feeling that there are occasions when the attacks are misguided, one is more expected than the instrument can provide. One does not dismiss the bowed and wind instruments on account of there essentially nomadic quality. Similarly one must not expect the harmonic possibilities and volume of a piano when considering the guitar. It is essential to evaluate the instrument on its own terms and explore what is capable of achieving. The solo instrument has gained tremendously in the present century, but many avenues remain to be explored. The guitar has been little featured in chamber music; its range of colours invites a juxtaposition against contrasting timbres, and it would be pleasant to see this potential realized.” 9
In my opinion, this is the essential conclusion to be drawn from the history of the classical guitar and the ultimate way to achieve a general understanding of our instrument among non-guitarists. By expanding its chamber music repertoire, the guitar will become more involved with the other classical instruments. And what better way to get to know the instrument as a non-guitarist than to play chamber music with a guitarist? Partly because of its shameful lack of good quality chamber music works, it is extremely isolated. The result is noticable in conservatories and in the concert scene. Guitar chamber music concerts are rarely programmed as main or evening concerts in large concert halls. In conservatories, the guitar department often has its own solo projects and is rarely involved in chamber music or larger ensemble projects. No wonder it remains so unknown and sometimes misunderstood. That is why I think it is essential to make chamber music transcriptions of famous 20th century composers. It is the most effective way to show non-guitarists the qualities and possibilities of the instrument.
History of Guitar Transcriptions
The earliest guitar transcriptions come from the lute and vihuela repertoire. These instruments were very popular in Spain in the 16th century, both among amateurs and professionals, and belonged to the high society. Much music of great complexity was written for both instruments, for example by Luis Milan, Francesco da Milano, Robert de Visée and John Dowland. Guitarists like to portray the lute and vihuela as the 'pre-history' of the guitar. This is incorrect for the simple reason that these instruments are much further removed from the modern guitar than the four-course guitar of the sixteenth century. The repertoire of this instrument was limited. It was used more to accompany songs with strummed chords. There were a few pieces by Mudarra, Fuenllana and Barberrii, but there was no single collection dedicated to the guitar. As a result, guitarists have continued to transcribe the high-quality repertoire of the vihuela and lute. The first guitarist to transcribe vihuela pieces for the modern guitar was Napoleon Coste (1805-1883), one of the most famous and important guitar composers of the 19th century.10
In the 18th and 19th centuries almost every guitarist wrote variations on popular opera arias, such as Fernando Sor (1778-1839) or Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829). Kaspar Mertz (1806-1856) transcribed Schubert songs for the guitar. On the whole, however, the guitar never achieved the same status as the vihuela or the lute. In the 19th century, Francisco Tarrega (1852-1909) gave the classical guitar a fresh start.11 In addition to laying the foundations of modern guitar technique and composing a collection of Romantic works, he transcribed a wide variety of music, mostly by 19th century composers. Until then, the limited repertoire for the guitar had been written exclusively by guitarists. None of the famous composers of the 19th century wrote for the guitar. That is because composers' careers depended on writing for more popular instruments, such as violin and piano, and for large ensembles, especially the symphony orchestra. They were not familiar with the guitar, which is not suitable for a large concert hall. So Tarrega, like any other guitarist before him, started transcribing music. He made more than 200 transcriptions of composers such as Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Bellini, Berlioz, Bizet, Chopin, Gottschalk, Gounod, Grieg, Handel, Mascagni, Massenet, Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, Mozart, Puccini, Schubert, Schumann, Strauss, ... He even made a transcription of Wagner. His transcriptions of the piano pieces of Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909) were especially appreciated and became very famous. It is interesting to note the emphasis on Romantic works. Walter Clark, classical guitarist, doctor and professor of musicology at the University of California states that this was the kind of music that the public wanted to hear and that Tarrega loved. He goes on to say that Tarrega's choice of pieces is judicious and precise. The works chosen have a clearly defined melodic line and chordal accompaniment, usually with arpeggio patterns that can be reproduced on the guitar without much difficulty. His students Miguel Llobet (1878-1938) and Emilio Pujol (1886-1980), nowadays acclaimed guitar composers, expanded the repertoire further, not only with their compositions, but also with transcriptions.12
After Tarrega, Andrès Segovia (1893-1987) expanded the repertoire on a larger scale. He brought the guitar in the classical mainstream and established this worldwide. Segovia became famous for his incredible performances on the biggest stages of the world. His expressive playing on the guitar attracted composers from all over the world to write for him, and thus began an unprecedented expansion of the literature. His main concern was that the classical guitar didn’t have a classical tradition. So he created a canon for the classical guitar through his transcriptions and by commissioning compositions from 20th century composers such as Torroba, Ponce, Tedesco, Villa-Lobos, Tansman, Rodrigo, ... Almost all of these composers were not guitarists themselves. They dedicated themselves to learning the instrument and composing. To this day, they are considered the most important composers for the classical guitar. In addition to commissioning all these pieces, Segovia also made transcriptions in order to create a worthy "history" that the guitar had never achieved. He achieved great success with his transcription of the Chaconne from Johan Sebastian Bach's Second Partita in D Minor. Along with other transcriptions of Bach's violin and cello repertoire, the Chaconne really helped the guitar's quest for status.13 Other important transcriptions come from the music of Silvius Leopold Weiss, the great lutenist. From the Renaissance period, he transcribed music by vihuela and lute composers such as Robert de Visée, Luis Milan, Vincenzo Galilei, ... Keyboard music is more difficult to transcribe, but Segovia did it as well. Music by Frescobaldi, Rameau and Couperin appeared in his recitals, its delicacy enhanced by the intimacy of the guitar. The music of Domenico Scarlatti is particularly suited to the guitar. He was impressed by the Spanish music of the 18th century, and the texture of Scarlatti's suites is particularly well suited to the guitar14. Segovia also transcribed music by keyboard composers of his own time, such as Mendelssohn, Franck, Mussorgsky, Grieg, Debussy, Scriabin, Chopin, etc. In addition to classical composers, he also made a number of transcriptions of folk tunes, such as his 23 Canciones Populares de Distintos Paises. There is a long tradition of transcriptions of popular tunes that goes back to the origins of the instrument. One of the finest examples of these transcriptions is the Catalan Folksongs by Miguel Llobet.15
Thanks to Segovia, and later Julian Bream (1933-2020) and John Williams (°1932), more and more non-guitarist composers began to write for the classical guitar in the 20th century. By the beginning of the 21st century the classical guitar had a fairly extensive repertoire, including such famous composers as Manuel De Falla, Benjamin Britten, Lennox Berkely, William Walton, Alberto Ginastera, Frank Martin, Frederico Mompou, Astor Piazzolla, Francis Poulenc and Peteris Vasks.16 Nevertheless, many guitarists revised older transcriptions written by Segovia, Tarrega or earlier composers. Especially compositions from the baroque and renaissance era were transcribed again and again, influenced by the HIP movement.x On the side of newly born compositions for guitar, Julian Bream and John Williams have commented on the technical demands of some of the music written for them. Turnbull says this is a healthy sign. It means that composers are not allowing their ideas to be restricted by the instrument; in this way platitudes are avoided and the instrument can only be enriched. He goes on to say that an examination of recital programmes reveals the expansion of the repertoire, but one is also aware of the continuing need for transcriptions to add musical weight.17
So during the 21st century the art of transcription became less popular and evident, but more ambitious. The next important transcriptions are complex orchestral pieces such as Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition or Dvorak's Symphony no. 9, impressively transcribed and performed by Kazuhito Yamashita (°1961). Elliot Fisk (born 1954) has also made incredible versions of difficult pieces such as Paganini's Caprices for violin. This is a remarkable change in the history of guitar transcriptions. On the one hand, the works chosen are of great complexity. This is in contrast to Tarrega and Segovia, for example, who chose pieces consisting of a clear melody line and arpeggios that are as idiomatic as possible, as close to the instrument as possible. As well as transcribing more complex music, guitarists continue to transcribe folk tunes and now other genres of music such as jazz standards or even famous pop songs by the Beatles. The most famous guitar composers of the 20th century, such as Roland Dyens, Leo Brouwer or Toru Takemitsu, wrote such transcriptions alongside their own compositions.18
Over the past decades, numerous new transcriptions continue to pop up in all kinds of genres. Professional concert artists continue to create repertoire for themselves. Guitarists who thoroughly researched Bach's works and created outstanding transcriptions include Tilmann Hopstockk, the Montenegrin Guitar Duo, Joszef Eötvös and Goran Sölsscher. It is also common nowadays (under the influence of the HIP movement), to make one's own transcription when playing a work from the baroque or renaissance. Thus, there are dozens of renowned guitarists who wrote their own transcriptions. In addition, transcriptions continue to emerge from both pop, folk and jazz as well as from major classical composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Just think of transcriptions of Rachmaninov by Judicael Perroy, transcriptions of Chopin by Jószef Eötvös and Matheus Kowalski, transcriptions of Haydn, Mozart and Schubert by Edin Kamarazov and Pavel Steidl, ...
In the folk, pop and jazz genres, the transcriptions of Matthew McAllister and Laura Snowden are noteworthy to me. Many composers have written compositions based on a folk melody or with influences from a particular jazz piece such as Stephen Goss's Cocktail list, for example. In that piece, some parts are a literal transcription, some rather a very free transcription. This is where the line between transcription and composition blurs. However, it is notable that there are not many transcriptions of contemporary composers. There are some transcriptions like Nagoya Guitars by Steve Reich transcribed by David Tanenbaum, works by Philip Glass, Arvo Pärt by Matthew McAllister, but they can be counted on two hands.