Some piano transcriptions of songs improved the originals to such an extent that they have become much better known than the songs (as is the case with “The Lark” by Glinka-Balakirev). In these, he not only sought to integrate the vocal line into the original accompaniment, but also to emphasise the poetic image with musical means. During the course of the twentieth century, however, this ideal of striving for vocal qualities on the piano faded from the spotlight, prompting Vladimir Horowitz – who did not hold the performance culture and general musicianship of younger pianists, whom he heard later in life, in particularly high esteem – to summarise his disapproval with the words “They are not singing”.įor Franz Liszt, who explored all directions of sound production on the piano, it seemed natural to accept the creative challenge of arranging songs for the piano: he produced over fifty transcriptions of Schubert songs alone. 70, containing twenty-four transcriptions of arias and songs by composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Rossini and Bellini. The pianist Sigismund Thalberg (1812-1871) made it his task to perfect this skill: in 1853 he published his instructive “L’art du chant appliqué au piano”, Op.
In the accompanying notes to his “Inventions and Sinfonias” of 1723, Bach explains that his intention with these pieces had been to produce an “honest manual” to teach “enthusiasts and especially those keen to learn” the correct way of playing in two and three parts, and particularly to impart “the cantabile style of playing”.Ī good century later – now moving on to the piano proper with pedals – the title of “Songs without words”, inaugurated by Felix Mendelssohn and used for several of his sets of piano pieces, conceded to the piano the ability to “sing” without the presence of a singer, to perform songs independently. Even during JS Bach’s time it was considered a challenge to produce a cantabile on an instrument that does not naturally “sing”, such as a keyboard instrument.
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