Risto-Matti Marin - The Art of Transcription (CD)

Release Date: 01/01/07

My aim here has been to outline the way transcriptions border between performance and composition. If performance is reg

My aim here has been to outline the way transcriptions border between performance and composition. If performance is regarded as an act comparable to arrangement, then a transcription is simply a perfonnance taken a little further; the result of reworking, just like a performance. If composition is thought of as an act comparable to arrangement in relation to the composer's 'idea' of a work, then a transcription can be regarded as a 're-composition', as a new interpretation of that idea. The transcription may be founded on an improvisation or a compositional idea committed straight onto paper: It is impossible to distinguish between improvisation, composition and performance, and the art of transcribing likewise falls in the grey border region. Since the arrangement nature of performances further makes them acts similar to recomposition, the borders between composition, transcription and performance become blurred. Transcriptions thus constitute a link between composition and performance, and in doing so they obscure the view still encountered that performance is simply execution and creativity the exclusive preserve of composers. – Marin, Risto-Matti