music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...

, a reduction is an

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

or transcription of an existing

score Score or scorer may refer to: *Test score, the result of an exam or test Business * Score Digital, now part of Bauer Radio * Score Entertainment, a former American trading card design and manufacturing company * Score Media, a former Canadian m ...

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature * Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

in which complexity is lessened to make

analysis Analysis ( : analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (3 ...

, performance, or practice easier or clearer; the number of parts may be reduced or

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed ...

may be simplified, such as through the use of

block chord A block chord is a chord (music), chord or voicing (music), voicing built directly below the melody either on the strong beats or to create a four-part harmony, harmonized melody line in "Locked hands style, locked-hands" rhythmic unison with the ...

Orchestral

An orchestral reduction is a

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed books or pamphlets in English, A ...

arrangement of a work originally for full symphony

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

(such as a symphony, overture, or opera), rearranged for a single instrument (typically

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

or organ), a smaller orchestra, or a

chamber ensemble Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

with or without a keyboard (e.g. a

string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinist ...

). A reduction for solo piano is sometimes called a

piano reduction In music, a reduction is an arrangement or transcription of an existing score or composition in which complexity is lessened to make analysis, performance, or practice easier or clearer; the number of parts may be reduced or rhythm may be si ...

or ''piano score''. During opera rehearsals, a

répétiteur A (from the French verb meaning 'to repeat, to go over, to learn, to rehearse') is an accompanist, tutor or coach of ballet dancers or opera singers. A feminine form, , also appears but is comparatively rare. Opera In opera, a is the person ...

(piano player) will typically read from a piano reduction of the opera. When a choir is learning a work scored for choir and full orchestra, the initial rehearsals will usually be done with a pianist playing a piano reduction of the orchestra part. Before the advent of the phonograph, arrangements of orchestral works for solo piano or

piano four hands Piano four hands (french: À quatre mains, german: Zu vier Händen, Vierhändig, it, a quattro mani) is a type of piano duet involving two players playing the same piano simultaneously. A duet with the players playing separate instruments is ...

were in common use for enjoyment at home. A reduction for a smaller orchestra or chamber ensemble may be used when not enough players are available, when a venue is too small to accommodate the full orchestra, to accompany less powerful voices, or to save money by hiring fewer players.

Piano

A piano reduction or piano transcription is

for the

(a ''piano score'') that has been compressed and/or simplified so as to fit on a two-line staff and be playable on the piano. It is also considered a style of

orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", or ...

or music

less well known as ''contraction scoring'', a subset of

elastic scoring Elastic scoring is a style of orchestration or music arrangement that was first used by the Australian composer Percy Grainger. Purpose This technique of orchestration is used to provide composers with the option of allowing a diverse group of vo ...

. The most notable example is

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

's transcriptions for solo piano of

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

's symphonies. According to

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

, a piano reduction should "only be like the view of a sculpture from ''one'' viewpoint", and he advises that

timbre In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and music ...

and thickness should largely be ignored, since "the attempt to make a useful object equally usable for a variety of purposes is usually the way to spoil it completely".

Sources

External links

Opus TranscribisticumEditions Poole
{{Authority control Musical notation Musical terminology Reduction Piano

Orchestral

Piano

See also

Sources

Further reading

External links