Pianist as arranger: creating the piano reduction for Unsuk Chin's Piano Concerto

Abstract

The performance of late twentieth- and early twenty-first century piano concertos is frequently hindered by the absence of piano reductions, which are essential tools for the pianist in the rehearsal and preparation process. This gap limits access to the repertoire and affects the efficiency and depth of practice. The artistic research project titled “Pianist as Arranger: Creating the Piano Reduction for Unsuk Chin's Piano Concerto” (“Pianist kui arranžeerija: Unsuk Chini klaverikontserdi klaviiri loomine”) aims to produce a piano transcription of the orchestral part of the Piano Concerto by the South Korean composer Unsuk Chin (1961) and elaborate on the ways that artistic and pianistic practice inform the process of a transcribing, and vice versa. This research seeks to answer to the following three questions: 1) what are the attributes of a playable, yet musically accurate transcription; 2) how does pianistic experience help to create a playable reduction; 3) how does the process of creating the piano reduction, in turn, inform the pianistic practice. The methodology of making a piano reduction is a three-fold process that synthesises the ideal concept of the concerto as represented in the full score and the sonic unfolding of the work as represented in live performances and studio recordings, with personal pianistic practices. This qualitative case study is led by reflective artistic practice that aims to create and articulate new knowledge and experience in the field of contemporary piano reductions and in the field of contemporary performance practice. The outcome of this research includes the first piano reduction of Chin᾿s Piano Concerto which hopes to contribute to the dissemination of the work and a model of transferring knowledge between musicological and artistic practices.