FRANK MORANA
AmerOrganist 35/4

"Bach himself was an inveterate transcriber of his own

works"—so reads the preface to nearly every published

arrangement, transcription, redaction, and transliteration

in "hyphenated" Bachland. If Bach's own transcriptions of

his own, and others' works have generated some discussion,

it is probably because they are so easy to talk about, and it is

always easier to talk about what a composer did do, rather than

what he didn't do. But just as there are many reasons for

transcribing, there are also many reasons not to

transcribe, and needless to say, Bach did not transcribe

the Chaconne in D minor any more than he did "Jesu, joy" or

"Air on the G string." To lay claim to an artistic, as opposed to

a merely functional merit, a transcription must emanate from a

deep understanding of some aspect of the work, thereby

illuminating and "realizing" the work in an hitherto

undemonstrated way. Arno Landmann's 1927 transcription is

here presented exactly as it appeared in the Simrock edition

at that time. It is amazing, in an archetype like the Chaccone,

how remarkably obtrusive even the slightest deviation from

Bach's granite-solid harmony can be, and there are about 20

such instances in Landmann's transcription. Two of the most

enraptured places in all Bach-playing, toward the end of the

D major section, simply do not seem well-enough suited to

the organ, and in the same vicinity, it is strange to find

fortissimo indications written for two- and three-note

chords in the right-hand alone. As in many transcriptions,

the very opening chord is given an octave lower, though this

is not Bach's normal voicing at all, and here and there, some

annoying "leader and follower" effects are interposed.

© The American Organist