Hand Piano Transcription
Four hand piano transcription is a musical genre that requires both musicians to play at the same time, while maintaining their separate rhythms and melodies. During the nineteenth century, massive quantities of four hand piano arrangements compressed the symphonic orchestra and opera into two-piano scores that could be easily played in middle class parlors. The practice has since lost its once-ubiquitous status, with LPs, CDs and digital music streaming having replaced the once-dominant two-player-one-keyboard medium, but it was once the defining medium of classical musical culture. The piano was the ideal instrument for domesticating “public” musical genres such as the symphony, opera and oratorio, as well as educating a burgeoning musical public through socially engaging arrangements that were much easier to iterate than their original counterparts.
The emergence of the four-hand piano arrangement was driven by amateur pianists, many of whom were women. Because the erotic possibilities of touching hands, overlapping fingers and sidling together were obvious, composers took advantage of this heightened intimacy to construct pieces that demanded as much contact as possible. This erotic power was also projected through literary treatments of four-hand playing, with such works as Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield describing the narrator’s shifting perception of his fiancée as a result of watching her play a four-hand duet.
While there are a handful of classics for four-hand piano, most four-hand pieces are quite difficult to learn and perfect. However, if you are willing to put in the work and have a partner ready to be an on-call backup, then there is no reason why you cannot begin your journey into the world of four-hand piano transcriptions.
Four Hand Piano Transcription
The first step is learning the individual parts. Once each of you knows the individual part well enough to be able to play it at slow tempos, it’s time to try to play together. Start off with a simple four-hand arrangement such as the Tchaikovsky Suite from The Nutcracker, in which one pianist plays the upper part (called primo) while the other plays the lower part (called secondo). Then move on to something more challenging, like the final movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
One of the main reasons that four-hand piano music is so difficult to play is that you are required to use the fleshy pads of your fingers on the keys, instead of the tips. This is because the pads of your fingers provide more cushion and sensitivity than the tips, and there is less friction between fingertip and key surface. Practicing the curled position is an excellent way to get used to this fingering.
Another thing to keep in mind is that, when performing a four-hand piece, you need to decide whether one player will play the primo or secondo parts. Then, when the piece calls for a change in direction, you must both be aware of the articulation and rhythm of the other player’s hands. Otherwise, it’s easy for the hands to get confused. This is why it’s so important to practice with a partner who can play your parts exactly as you would like them.