I'm not quite sure if it was Franz Lizst who was responsible for the beginnings of transcriptions, but he seems to have more or less instituted and popularized a custom which, although it has had its useful aspects, has more often resulted in "veritable prostitution of the art." The dear old modest fellow, not wishing to pass up any opportunities, Lizst emasculated and rewrote established works to suit Lizst, placed his name next to that of the rightful composer, and then went merrily about astonishing his audiences by playing the music, which had been absurdly bedecked by frills, trills, and what-nots.

One composer in particular, mainly because he wrote so much music that is not suited to present-day mediums of performances, has been the transcriber's prize scapegoat. Johann Sebastian Bach has suffered more at the hands of conductors and who-knows-whats than should happen to even a composer. The Brandenburg Concerti, for example, are written for small groups of string instruments, yet they have been presented, as is also the case with the Corelli Suite for Strings, with entire symphony or chestra string sections. It is true that the music had been transcribed. What that nasty word seems to have consisted of is a rewriting to fit larger, more pompous groups of instruments. Leopold Stokowski seems really to enjoy the music of Bach, and has done quite a bit in calling attention to it. Yet, he, without malice aforethought, has done more than his rightful share in deforming the music to fit the large symphony orchestras to which he is accustomed. Or again, this year the Boston Symphony, too proud to use his arrangements, performed a reasonable facsimile thereof when they used two Bach Preludes that had been rearranged for String Orchestra by Riccardo Pick-Mangiagalli.

Taking a slight jump to more recent times, it seems that even the late George Gershwin has fared none too well. What the "Rhapsody in Blue" was written for originally seems at the moment to be obscured by its numerous and greatly varied instrumentations, but I for one have heard it for piano, for two pianos, for piano and orchestra, for piano and organ, for organ and orchestra, for four pianos, for accordion, and in other popularized versions. And it was only this season that "Porgy and Bess," in a somewhat stilted and unGershwinian manner (a la Bennett), entered Carnegie Hall.

Honorable mention, however, should be made in the case of some transcriptions which were made with better discrimination and taste. The Bach Chaconne in D Minor as originally written, stands as one of the bulwarks in any competent violinist's repertoire. As it stands today, it is also established in any competent pianist's repertoire, for the transcription by Ferruccio Benvenuto Busoni is second to none in transferring the mood and music accurately to the piano. The Brahms-Haydn Variations, written originally for two pianos, and Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition," originally written for piano, have also profited by transcription.