Arthur, This is a silly thread, words are wonderful but they also can have various interpretations. To paraphrase The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, "we don't need no stinkin' dictionaries".
Transcription, a copy from one form to another - or a direct copy to another medium. From the roots "trans", meaning approximately "cross", "scribe" meaning "write". It is an automatic form. Transliteration (not mentioned in this thread), the rewriting of words into a different language using exact definitions or lettering. Not always an accurate reflection of meaning. Arrangement, just that, an arranging of things. And a musical arrangement can completely change the sense of a piece. I take a trivial example, the Simon and Garfunkel Scarbrough Fair. The traditional song was in a major key (Ionic mode), they adjusted the melody to a sort of descant and made it the main theme melody. That was in Dorian mode. Most published "fake books', or sheet music set their version in the relative minor (Aolian). Arrangement is open ended, and also can be proprietary if it is original enough. I'll not be told by the late Stanley Sadie how I should use words, and I doubt that he would have disagreed. Let us agree to use the sense of the words, if I take a lute piece in tab and transliterate it to staff (that is really incorrect, I can't transliterate notation, but that is the sense of changing the lettering of one language to another). OK, kill that last sentence. If I take a lute piece and transcribe it to staff I may come up with an unplayable piece on the instrument I'm thinking of (whatever that may be). So let us add a word, the word "translate". Sci-Fi advocates could say the word means to move instantly to another galaxy, linguists would say that it means to carry the meaning from one language to another (as contrasted to transliterate). Arrangement is another thing, it is forming a different way of playing the piece - no need to change the instrument or medium. Hoagie Carmichael's "Stardust" was originally a ragtime arrangement for piano, it didn't sell. He "rearranged" it as a ballad and it became a classic. Arrangement is a way to either change the sense of a piece, or to retain the sense of a piece in a different medium. Listen to Respighi's (sp?) orchestral Airs and Dances for Lute on a theme by Vespucci (sp?). A two level separation from the originals. Arthur, as a good Bostonian you should enjoy the lack of definition in words. A dictionary of music is a pleasant companion, but is not definitive as any dictionary is flawed. Best, Jon -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
