A distinction must be made, however, between an arrangement and a transcription. The word arrangement automatically confesses that changes have been made — notes added to make chords “fuller”, harmonies “jazzed up”, or even sections deleted. Serious musicians and listeners can justifiably cringe at the lengths certain performers will go to to make a work more “accessible” (read saleable…). A transcription however, implies a certain faithfulness to the original. There are of course, many different opinions of what constitutes “faithfulness”. There are those performers who profess to being wholly concerned with the overall spirit of a work, and others who feverishly compare minute pen strokes in different versions of the manuscript.

It should be emphasized that much of the music on this album could never have been attempted by a single marimbist until the development of Stevens’ new approach to four mallet technique. In fact, the Two Part Inventions are published in a marimba edition by a respected music publisher — as duets! This album is not one of those “switched on” Bach technological feats where the artist layers on many simple lines, one track at a time. In this case, that was not necessary, as can be attested to by the thousands who have heard Leigh Howard Stevens perform these works live in concert halls throughout the world.