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Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2133-5819

Date Available

5-1-2026

Year of Publication

2026

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA)

College

Fine Arts

Department/School/Program

Music Performance

Faculty

Jacob Coleman

Faculty

Martina Vasil

Abstract

Piano reductions are an essential medium through which collaborative pianists work with orchestral concertos. However, many existing reductions, particularly of 20th century works, hinder effective performance in terms of orchestral fidelity and feasibility of execution. The problem is twofold: reductions may contain technically cumbersome passages with diminishing musical returns; they may also omit or misrepresent important orchestral effects and textures. For these problematic situations, this work presents pianistic revisions that aim to preserve essential orchestral sound characteristics. Using the first movements of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto and Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Tuba Concerto as examples, this work demonstrates a systematic methodology of revising piano reductions, starting from the identification of problematic passages and introducing various revision techniques. For the Korngold concerto, the revision aims to better recreate the cinematic effects by rewriting impractical sections, reinforcing thin textures, and restoring omitted material. For the Vaughan Williams, the revision redesigns technically inefficient passages, and corrects discrepancies between the reduction and orchestral scores. The objective of this work is a re-orchestration on the piano that balances the playability of the music with its orchestral quality. Therefore, the revisions provide alternatives to available reductions that allow for the realization of an orchestral intent with pianistic designs.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2026.118

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