Sunday, June 18, 2017

[nkzwtvoy] Chaconne arrangements

Bach's Chaconne works quite well on guitar (e.g., Segovia), especially the thick chords and arpeggiated sections.  It does not work as well as violin for sustained notes and scales.  The obvious idea is to arrange it as a guitar and violin duet to get the best of both instruments.  However, in general, those two instruments seem rarely paired in duets.  Why?

Consider playing it on electric guitar.  Electric guitar can sustain notes, and effects pedals can create many different timbres.  Play it in the style of Jimi Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner: the song might work well with transitions between dark and stormy, and light and pretty.  Inspired surprisingly by solo violin by Ivry Gitly, who treats it roughly.

Eastman Saxophone Project (arr. Matthew Evans) is very nice, though could be improved toward the end.  Call and response by the instruments of different timbres works really well.  Arpeggiated sections do not work so well on wind instruments.

Busoni is mostly very nice, though he made some radical changes, which ought to be made optional.  Kissin omits an ossia at 13:00, and it sounds closer to the original, and better.

Trifonov plays the Brahams arrangement slowly, which captures better how a chaconne is a baroque dance form, so needs to match the capability of natural human movement.

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