Absonous \Ab”so*nous\, a. [L. absonus; ab + sonus sound.] Discordant; inharmonious; incongruous. [Obs.] “Absonous to our reason.” –Glanvill.
As the era of the super-virtuoso reached its “me too” apex it was not uncommon to see pianists and composers attach their names to arrangements and transcriptions already hyphenated and appended with the names of earlier virtuosi. When Liszt arranged Paganini’s Caprices for piano solo the scores were published under the name of Paganini-Liszt, the arrangers name placed respectively in sequential deference to the original composer. Similarly, Liszt’s name appeared in numerous hyphenations, including Schubert-Liszt, Wagner-Liszt, Bellini-Liszt, and so on. With regard to the Paganini-Liszt studies it was the Italian pianist and composer Ferrucio Busoni who arranged Liszt’s arrangements, publishing his scores under the name of Paganini-Liszt-Busoni. In later years Vladimir Horowitz got in on the fun, embellishing Busoni’s embellishments, and performing a selection of Paganini-Liszt-Busoni-Horowitz Etudes.
Add to the mix Mr. Softee. As summer arrives in New York the noise pollution of the Mr. Softee ice cream truck re-asserts itself after its winter absence. I found myself listening to a recording of Carlo Grante playing Godowsky’s arrangements of Chopin’s Etudes. At a certain point the music was way high in the register of thepiano, I guess you might describe the sound as that of a music box, but for some reason it sounded wrong to me. These Godowsky arrangements, described by Claudio Arrau as sounding like “ants”, bustle with chromatic whirrs and counterpoint too complicated to imagine or even hear. With a spirit of good humor I often listen to these pieces, as repeat hearings tend to reveal some strain of humor previously unnoticed.
As I heard that above mentioned passage, glittering in the upper register of the piano, I though I heard something new, some heretofore unnoticed strand of counterpoint. Was Godowsky quoting Choping quoting Diabelli? I listened closer to the great Carlo Grante, listening for what this hidden line of music could mean, and sadly concluded that it was the sound of the Mr. Softee truck, its grating music box jingle invading my concentration and intertwining itself into the music, its vaguely similay timbre mixing up with this Chopin-Godowsky music to create an ephemral etude by the unlikely relay of Chopin-Godowsky-Softee.
