Busoni's character was full of dualities, including those of musical tastes, careers (composing vs. pianistic), centuries, and hybrid vs. original works. He edited and transcribed copious works by Bach, Liszt, Mozart, and other composers, including Beethoven, Chopin, and Mendelssohn (pp. 177-294). He was attracted to Bach's art of counterpoint and structure, Liszt's piano writing, and Mozart's clarity and conciseness of form. Busoni's transcriptions manifest a synthesis of his past and future as he believed it to be (pp. 295-313). His attitudes toward transcription are tied to his ideas on notation and the "Unity of Music." He regarded transcribing as an independent art; he created totally new sounds on the piano and gave the art of transcribing a new freedom and dignity.

Works: Busoni: arrangement of Bach's Four Duets for Piano (185-86), "interpretation" of Bach's Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue (188-89), collection and completion of Bach's Fantasia, Adagio, and Fugue (189-90), Fantasia after J.S. Bach for Piano (201-204), Prelude, Fugue, and Figured Fugue after J.S. Bach's WTC (204); Liszt-Busoni: Andantino Capriccioso, Etude No. 2 after Paganini's Caprice (216), free arrangement of the Theme and Variations on Paganini's Etude No. 6 (220-224), arrangement of the Spanish Rhapsody for piano and orchestra (228-230); Mozart-Liszt-Busoni: completion of the Figaro Fantasy (235), Don Juan Fantasie (227-28); Busoni: two-piano arrangement of Mozart's Fantasy for mechanical organ (253-55), two-piano transcription of the overture to Mozart's Magic Flute (255-56), piano solo arrangement of the Andantino from Mozart's Piano Concerto, K. 271 (256-57), piano arrangement of the fugue from String Quartet K. 546 (265).

Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: Daniel Bertram