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To: DollyCali
The great Polish piano virtuoso Josef Hoffmann wrote an arrangement of "The Star Spangled Banner" in C major that is loud and bombastic. You can hear the bombs bursting in midair.

Rachmaninov found it vulgar. His own devotion to the country that took him in prompted him to write an arrangement in B-flat that is quieter and more contemplative. The chord combination he uses for "the free" is a revelation.

Rachmaninov avoided becoming an American citizen because he was certain that the Russian people would come to their senses and send the Bolsheviks packing. He was looking forward to a triumphal return to Mother Russia. Three weeks before his death from cancer in 1943, he came to understand that his dream would not come true in his lifetime. In his final act of giving the finger to Stalin, he became an American citizen.

He is buried just down the row from another Russian emigre, Ayn Rand, who joined him in 1977.

63 posted on 05/31/2024 8:08:51 PM PDT by Publius
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To: Publius

Do you know of any of those arrangements have been transcribed into sheet music?


66 posted on 05/31/2024 8:25:07 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam (Navarro didn't kill himself.)
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