Thought an example might be of interest - the passage below is from Chopin's gorgeous Nocturne in B major Op. 62 No. 1



Here you have two simultaneous melodic lines in the treble, in the manner of an operatic duet, and a far-from-insignificant accompaniment in the bass. I would probably do something like the following: at the beginning of the second, play the A# very fractionally after the bass G# and treble B, then the F# on the fourth quaver a little after the bass, and the melody D# slightly later still. Then a slower spread on the following C#/E/D# both to highlight the desolation of the dissonant harmony. Then the first C# at the beginning of the next bar a little after the bass G#, so it doesn't get so obviously caught in the resonance. The A# on the second crotchet beat with the bass B but before the treble D#, to maintain a sense of two line. Then as the music proceed towards the 6-3 chord towards the end of the last bar, increasingly playing the two lines in the treble slightly apart from one another to add to the sense of tension generated by their simultaneous presence (so that, for example, the first D# in the treble in the last bar is more significantly after the C#, and the second D# later still, also the A# after the bass C# - indeed most of the bass crotchets just before the treble, so one can hear those as a line). Then the accented C# in the bass, if played a little early, does not need to swamp the melodic F#s (that is, if one thinks the accent only applies to that note, it may apply to them all). This may be rather over-extravagant for some people's taste, and the practices can be adopted to a lesser degree as well. Would be interested to know what any of you think if you try it out!

I find this idea very interesting. What are the alternatives of which you speak?

[I idly wonder just how much people would have broken poor Bach's fugues up back in the old days. (On this topic, I think Busoni said of the playing of fugues, that he preferred to emphasise the free parts over the subjects, that the main melodies were a framework around which the fugue was built).]

I shall have to listen to my harpsichord and clavichord recordings of the wtc *much* more carefully tonight.


By possible, you mean impossible?  (oh; unless you talk of registers)

Oh.  Bugger. I misread.

The best explanation to Busoni's ideas on Bach is to be found in Busoni's scores, I would say.

Back to Busoni, can anybody tell suggest any pieces by Busoni that a mediocre musician like me could play?
I know Busoni made transcription of Bach's organ pieces. I think they are above me. In any case I can not look at them first because they are not available here. I don't want to order if I am not going to play them.
I am considering to put them on my wish list together with Alkan. I wish I could see Godowsky arrangements too. Someone here told me that he arranged Schubert Musical moments in F minor really well. The problem is that I need too much and I can not buy everything at once. I have to rationalize it.
About desyncronisation, I thought that pianists play the left before the right hand more often. Now I can see that I was wrong.

t-i-n 


t-p, i know very little busoni,

but only play the transcription of bach d minor chaconne (orig. for violin) if you're really desperate. it's a great favourite of fellow college students at the moment ; i must have heard it at least four times this year.

whoops just noticed your remarks regarding transcriptions.

i'll bugler off now.