Busoni's contribution to the art of the piano transcription is formidable. His chorale prelude transcriptions make him responsible for giving over to the piano repertoire a small portion of sacred literature. His special admiration of J. S. Bach, evidenced throughout his life, make Busoni's transcriptional practices all the more significant. Bach himself was a prolific transcriber of his own works and the works of others. This paper presents a brief history of keyboard transcriptional practices, emphasizing Busoni's methods by comparing the original works for organ with the transcriptions for piano. Four chorale preludes form the basis for this study: Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (BWV 639), Komm, Gott, Schopfer, Heiliger Geist (BWV 667), Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland (BWV 659), and In dir ist Freude (BWV 615).

The purpose of this paper is to identify Spanish elements in the sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti and to determine the extent of their use. All 555 sonatas in facsimile edition, edited by Ralph Kirkpatrick, were compared to the printed anthologies of Spanish folk music by Kurt Schindler and Felipe Pedrell as well as recordings of authentic Spanish folk music. The study concludes that Scarlatti incorporated Spanish musical elements extensively. In some sonatas, fragments of folk tunes occur, but always with some rhythmical alterations or melodic elaborations. Only K. 513 contains an entire folk tune. Scarlatti evidently wrote melodies of folk-like quality and did not merely copy the folk tunes.