Arthur Hartmann, like Kreisler, Elman, Maud Powell and others of his
colleagues, has enriched the literature of the violin with some notably
fine transcriptions. And it is a subject on which he has well-defined
opinions and regarding which he makes certain distinctions: "An
'arrangement,'" he said, "as a rule, is a purely commercial affair, into
which neither art nor æsthetics enter. It usually consists in writing
off the melody of a song--in other words, playing the 'tune' on an
instrument instead of hearing it sung with words--or in the case of a
piano composition, in writing off the upper voice, leaving the rest
intact, regardless of sonority, tone-color or even effectiveness, and,
furthermore, without consideration of the idiomatic principles of the
instrument to which the adaptation was meant to fit.
"A 'transcription,' on the other hand, can be raised to the dignity of
an art-work. Indeed, at times it may even surpass the original, in the
quality of thought brought into the work, the delicate and sympathetic
treatment and by the many subtleties* which an artist can introduce to
make it thoroughly a _re-creation_ of his chosen instrument.
*Transcriber's note: Original text read "subleties".
"It is the transcriber's privilege--providing he be sufficiently the
artist to approach the personality of another artist with reverence--to
donate his own gifts of ingenuity, and to exercise his judgment in
either adding, omitting, harmonically or otherwise embellishing the work
(_while preserving the original idea and characteristics_), so as to
thoroughly _re-create_ it, so completely destroying the very sensing of
the original _timbre_ that one involuntarily exclaims, 'Truly, this
never was anything but a violin piece!' It is this, the blending and
fusion of two personalities in the achievement of an art-ideal, that is
the result of a true adaptation.
"Among the transcriptions I have most enjoyed making were those of
Debussy's _Il pleure dans mon cœur_, and _La Fille aux cheveaux de
lin_. Debussy was my cherished friend, and they represent a labor of
love. Though Debussy was not, generally speaking, an advocate of
transcriptions, he liked these, and I remember when I first played _La
Fille aux cheveaux de lin_ for him, and came to a bit of counterpoint I
had introduced in the violin melody, whistling the harmonics, he nodded
approvingly with a '_pas bête ça!_' (Not stupid, that!)