Transcription and performance of Franz Schubert's music for guitar

Abstract

Performance of songs with guitar accompaniment has been in great demand since the 18th century. Naturally, the Lieder of Franz Schubert has provided immense interest to guitarists throughout history and as a result many of his songs have been arranged with guitar accompaniment and also for solo guitar. This practice began during Schubert’s lifetime when a number of his songs were published with guitar accompaniment. Transcription of Schubert Lieder with guitar accompaniment continued throughout the 19th century notably by Napoléon Coste and Johann Kaspar Mertz in addition to the collection of Franz von Schlechta. More recently guitarists such as Tilman Hoppstock and Mats Bergström have made numerous arrangements of Schubert lieder with guitar accompaniment.

In this written commentary I will discuss the development of guitar writing in Schubert’s transcriptions and how these developments affected my own transcriptions and performance of Schubert’s works.

The first two chapters look at Schubert Lieder with guitar accompaniment. Chapter three explores the solo transcriptions of Schubert Lieder; initially the adaptations of Franz Liszt for solo piano and Johann Kaspar Mertz for solo guitar (Sechs Schubert’sche Lieder), and subsequently their influence on my transcriptions for solo guitar.

The final chapter examines the approach towards phrasing and a singing style in solo instrumental performance of Schubert lieder.

My doctoral Artistic Projects include performances of Schubert’s partsongs and chamber works with guitar (Artistic Project 1), Lieder transcriptions with guitar accompaniment (Artistic Project 2), and new transcriptions and performance of Schubert’s Schwanengesang D.957 for solo guitar (Artistic Project 3).