Evening star., 1955-10-30
~ DAY THORPE

When the Fnliaoolpnla Or-
ehestra comes to town . week
from Tuesday 1t viii give .
J world premiere Of . tran-
scription Of Bach's organ fan-
tasia and fueue In q minor.
The transcriber Is william r.
Smith. musical assistant to
Eugene Ormandy, conductor
of the orchestra. In anticipa-
ton Of the premiere. the or
sehestra.s publicity department
Has released q statement BY
nj. smith:
Since the transcriptions Of
works by Bach were first OF
fered to the public there have
existed In the minds Of some
music lovers these questions:
fWhy transcribe these works
1t an, and why tram
scribe them at all when the
use Of q large orchestra is in-
yolved using instruments come
pletely foreign to 9achs
Aiime?''
.sThe nrst question is an-
sWered most adequately by the
1ack that these great works
Tin transcription1 have be-
come vastly more familiar to
music lovers than they were
in their original form, when
heard only In organ recitals
Or as choral works.
The answer to the second
question Ii that the only ale
ternative to using the fun
symphonic ensemble for tram
scriptions Ii to employ only
such an ensemble as Bach used
III his orchestral works, in an
instrumentation which. though
it exhibited q wealth Of image
ination and versatility. suf-
fered ftunA the limitations
which Each faced In having
only D limited number Of in-
struments at his disposal. "
Since the music Of Bach il
represented on the programs
Of our large symphony orches-
tras today largely by these
transcriptions, and since the
Philadelphia Orchestra, more
than any other. Is identified
with these ubiquitous Bach
hyphens. it Is interesting and
worth while to consider Mr..
Smiths position.
Bach Was Own Arranger
First. q word Of background.
Bach transcriptions are not
new, nor does the practice Of
rewriting Bach lacks the high
est authority. The composer
himself was the earliest and by
far the most prolific arranger
Of his own music. There are
at least q hundred works Of
Bach arranged by the COM
poser's own hand for other
musical forces. Orchestral
pieces are arranged for organ,
keyboard pieces are arranged
for orchestra and chorus. solo
violin pieces are arranged for
organ or for full orchestra.
violin concerti for keyboard
concerts, and 50 on. Mozart
was the next Bach arranger.
and he was followed by Schu-
mann, Brahms, and many
other composers Of pre-emi-
nence in their own right, ~
well as by many who are re-
membered primarily by their
posthumously acquired assoc
citation.
Pristine Bach Is therefore
certainly and fortunately not
sacrosanct. Furthermore, Mr..
Smith would have q tenable
argument II he maintained
that 1t is impossible in any
event to play Bach on the same
instruments he himself used,
for some are hardly obtainable,
and there are q few the very
identity Of which scholars have
not agreed upon.
But there Is more than one
way to present the orchestral
music Of Bach today. II the
way to which Leopold St0-
kowsli gave q certain sheen Of
respectability (the eminent
former conductor Of the Phila-
delphia does not have to bear
the onus Of having actually
Anyented the method has any
merit, it is not revealed by Mr..
Smiths arguments. II, as he
says, Bach has become famil-
lar to music lovers through
orchestra transcriptions such
as those made prominent by
our major orchestras today, it
is time to discard music al
together and relegate 1t to
the category of necromancy.
The allegation, however, is not
self-evident. and Mr.. Smith
does not support 1t.
Lazy. Vulgar Efforts
The typical Goth century
Bach orchestral transcription
Cat least 98 per cent Of them
are typicaD is the result Of Q
lazy, vulgar, insensitive at
tempt to make capital Of . big
name, to make money out OF
Bach, who is In the public
domain and who is definitely
longhair and reyered, at the
expense of Morton Gould, who
hasn't broken into the high
society music. but who Is
loved.
Far from having q limited
number of instruments at his
disposal, Bach used q great
many more than the Philadel-
phia Orchestra lists on its
roster--25 at least, and II
Bach suffered from any limi-
tations, they were those Of all
art, for his orchestraticn is
completely unstereotyped. It
shows q greater variety from
piece to piece than that Of any