Christopher Neil Adkins
http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/islandor
The purpose of this treatise is two fold. The first is to expand the repertoire of the guitar duo and guitar quartet by creating two new transcriptions. The work Five Nocturnes for solo piano by the early twentieth-century composer Erik Satie is transcribed for two guitars. The symphonic poem Danse Macabre, Op. 40 by Camille Saint-Saëns is transcribed for four guitars. The second purpose of this treatise is to examine the process of transcribing music for these ensembles by comparing my transcriptions with other works. The comparison pieces are Alexandre Lagoya’s transcription of Debussy’s Clair de Lune for guitar duo and William Kanengiser’s transcription of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34 for guitar quartet. Chapter one is an introduction to guitar duo and quartet transcription. It contains a review of literature for both ensembles, a brief history of the pieces transcribed, a brief methodology of the pieces transcribed for the treatise, and a description of general issues with transcribing. Chapter two describes and provides examples of the process of transcribing Erik Satie’s Five Nocturnes and comparing the decisions made on Lagoya’s Clair de Lune arrangement. Likewise, Chapter three examines William Kanengiser’s Capriccio Espagnol transcription and the decisions made to create an effective transcription of Danse Macabre for guitar quartet. The last chapter will be a conclusion summarizing the importance of transcribing for the guitar and its ensemble settings.
