The Pianist's Guide to Transcriptions, Arrangements, and Paraphrases. (Books).

The Pianist's Guide to Transcriptions, Arrangements, and Paraphrases, by Maurice Hinson. Indiana University Press, (601 N. Morton St., Bloomington, IN 47404), 1990 (paperback edition 2001). 192 pp., $19.95.

To any professional pianist the name Maurice Hinson calls forth a number of images: meticulous scholar, prolific editor and author, energizing and inspiring lecturer. Hinson has greatly enriched the piano teaching and performing professions with his guides to various genres of repertoire, his informative and extensively researched editions of music, and his workshops and videotapes.

In 1990, Indiana University Press published Hinson's book, The Pianist's Guide to Transcriptions, Arrangements, and Paraphrases. As he notes in the highly informative Preface, transcriptions are a time-honored art and have flourished for centuries. It was during several decades of the twentieth century, when the pendulum of taste swung heavily to the purist approach to performance, that the transcription/arrangement fell into disfavor with many performers, scholars and teachers. Some pianists, however--notably Earl Wild--continued to perform this genre, and as we begin the twenty-first century, this form of music has again returned to the concert hall.

Hinson delineates the difference between the three forms of this genre as a matter of how much the original music is altered. He considers the transcription to be the closest to a literal rendition of the original, the paraphrase the freest, and the arrangement as the middle of the road between the other two. His criteria for selection were:

* Published works only

* No pedagogically oriented pieces unless they were unusually musical and effective

* Generally, pieces by well-known composers only

* Works for solo piano, piano duet, two pianos and a few transcriptions for one hand

He also asked the following questions of each piece before it was included in this book:

* Is this arrangement, transcription or paraphrase acceptable as a musical entity?

* Is it a finer composition than the original?

* Is it pianistic; that is, does it truly suit the piano?

* Is it in good taste?

The guide is very easy to use, listing all composers and transcribers in alphabetical order, with each one cross-referenced. Information on the date of the transcription, the editor, publisher, edition number, copyright date, number of pages and/or approximate performance time is listed, along with specifically related books, dissertations or theses. Information is given for each composer, and each entry contains a brief description of the piece, along with a listing of whether it could be considered intermediate, moderately difficult or difficult. The book also includes lists of Publisher Abbreviations; Parent Companies, United States Distributors and Some Retailers; and Addresses of Music Publishers, Libraries and National Information Centers.

Without a doubt, transcriptions, arrangements and paraphrases are coming back into general acceptance as teaching and performance pieces. At the 2001 National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, several national winners of the piano portion of the MTNA competition were spotlighted in an evening concert. A stunning performance of four transcriptions by the junior high winner brought the audience of piano teachers and pedagogues to their feet in an enthusiastic reception of music that, twenty years ago, might have been questioned as being appropriate to study or perform. Because this type of music has been out of vogue for several decades, many teachers and performers may be unaware of the extensive repertoire available to them, and would find this to be an invaluable resource.

Rebecca Grooms Johnson, NCTM, Columbus, Ohio.