A cover by any other name

Although classical music composers, conductors, and musicians, in general, tend to use words like interpretation or orchestration or representation, the truth of the matter is that, unless played by the original composer or, in the occasional instances, the person it was written for, any time a classical composition is played--whether in the privacy of your home, on your instrument, or on a field by the high school marching band, or on stage by some world renowned orchestra--it is, in the end, a cover.

That's too simple a viewpoint, of course, since the same could be ascribed to any piece of music, classical or otherwise, but, realistically, very rarely--and this it applicable to music written long after recording was a possibility--do we associate a piece of classical music with an original performer (although we do quite often associate it with a performer or performance that exhibits originality).

Even so, there are a few pieces that have the distinction of being recognized in two or more variant forms strongly enough as to create a relationship analogous to that of the original and the cover as referenced in popular music. The best and most often cited example that comes to mind is Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition', originally composed for the piano, and Maurice Ravel's orchestration of the same piece ( which included some artistic liberties). Ravel took the beautifully lyrical piece, which [I feel] embodied the solitary perspective of experiencing Hartmann's works, and reinvented it as a different perspective of an entire group of people walking through and examining the same works of art. You come away with a new appreciation for the familiar.

And that's what any good cover does.

(Note that what's posted is not a one to one match of the movements, but they both have Promenade and Gnomus, which is enough to give you an idea and hopefully whet your appetite to look up both in their entirety).

Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition (piano 'original')



Ravel's Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition (orchestration 'cover')