Sergei Rachmaninoff. The Prelude in C-sharp minor Opus 3 No. 2: Jazz Band Versions in the Swing Era

Abstract

Arrangements of classical music in popular genres comprises a discernible stratum of the artistic heritage of the swing era. The practice of jazzing the classics or swinging the classics affected the music of dozens of composers, including Sergei Rachmaninoff. The most highly sought primary text for instrumental transcriptions turned out to be his Prelude inC-sharp Minor. Its jazz band version (from the perspective of the correspondence to jazzing as a stylistic phenomenon and in regards to the techniques of transcription technique) have never formed the subject matter of special attention up to the present. In the article the author presents for the first time the results of examinations of jazzing-transformations of the piece.

Each one of the “renewed” versions of the Prelude is endowed with common features for stylistic reorientation (the replacement of the high genres with applied ones, the “transfer” of the academic type of rhythm into swing rhythm, transformations of texture and timbre, etc.), as well as individually transubstantiated techniques of transformation of the original (first of all, the structural-compositional plane). The greatest amount of arrangements of the Prelude is designed for big bands, the sound of which may be called the sound brand of the swing era. Especially representative in this regard are the versions which sounded in performance by the orchestras of Duke Ellington (1938), Glen Gray (1939) and Jack Teagarden (1941). The arrangement from the repertoire of Jack Hilton’s orchestra (1930) stands apart among the band versions. The structure of the original is preserved precisely in it, which makes it possible to call this version a sound transcription of this piano piece. the tempo-rhythm of this example is discerned by its agogics and its absence of swing. Most specific is the sound of the arrangement oriented on Paul Whiteman’s sympho-jazz, following the example of which Hilton incorporates string instruments into his orchestra. The examined band versions of Rachmaninoff’s Preludes demonstrate both the typological correspondence to the phenomenon of jazzing the classics and the individuality of the transcription-based transformations.

Keywords: Sergei Rachmaninoff, Prelude in C-sharp minor, jazzing, the swing era, jazz arrangements