Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/448

436 those who trust to the facilities offered by an 'arrangement,' however good that 'arrangement' may be.

In order to play effectively from an Orchestral Score, two additional qualifications are necessary: an intimate acquaintance with the principles of Instrumentation; and a sound judgment, to be acquired only by long experience, and careful listening to the effect produced by certain Instrumental combinations. The Student will naturally begin by playing Compositions written for Stringed Instruments alone, or Voices accompanied by Stringed Instruments; such as Handel's Overtures, and a multitude of his Songs and Choruses. The chief difficulty to be encountered here, is that of adapting Violin passages to the Key-board, in cases in which their exact transference is impossible; as in such instances as

which must necessarily be played in the following, or some analogous form.

But little additional difficulty is presented by Scores enriched with Parts for Oboes and Bassoons, beyond the judgment necessary for indicating the desirable contrast between the Stringed and Wind Instruments. But, with the 'Transposing Instruments,' the case is very different. The first power to be attained is that of reducing Horn and Trumpet passages, from the Key of C, into that in which the Composition stands. Good examples for practice will be found in Haydn's Symphonies, which are constantly written for Oboes, Bassoons, and Horns, in combination with each other. More puzzling still, to the uninitiated, are Clarinet Parts; which, as already explained, are written either a Major Second or a Minor Third higher than the Violins, and, when used with Horns or Trumpets, constantly involve the necessity for reading in three different Keys at once, as in the following passage from 'Mi tradi' in 'Il Don Giovanni.'

which is really intended to sound thus—

Much discussion has lately taken place, in English Musical Periodicals, concerning the desirableness of simplifying the appearance of Orchestral Scores by writing the Parts for Transposing Instruments in the Keys in which they are intended to sound. At first sight the suggestion seems reasonable enough; but there are grave, if not insuperable objections to it. In the first place, it presupposes an amount of knowledge, on the part of the copyist, which few copyists possess. In accordance with our present practice, the separate Parts are transcribed exactly as they stand in the Score; whereas, were the new suggestion adopted, they would all be at the mercy of the copyist's aptitude for transposing correctly. Again, the root of the new idea is, the desire for providing a royal road, where no royal road can, by any possibility, exist, or would be of any use if it could. Surely, the Student who can read, simultaneously, five or six Staves, written in as many different Clefs, need not be afraid of the very slight additional difficulty of transposing a Clarinet Part. The Accompanyist who cannot transpose fluently at sight is incapable of efficiently performing the rôle he has undertaken: and the suggestion we deprecate is calculated rather to encourage his slothfulness, than to afford him any real help. If Art is to progress, in earnest, it will gain nothing by smoothing the road to superficial knowledge, and thereby setting a premium upon half-heartedness, to the manifest