Lawrence Sherwood writes:

>I bought a copy of an arrangement of it that totally changed my perception
>of the work.  It was an arrangement for string quartet by a composer I've
>come to appreciate in the past year, Robert Simpson, and was performed by
>the Delme Quartet and released on the hyperion label (I think).  I've not
>heard any of the recordings Don cited, but arrangements of this work that
>I have heard- arrangements for piano, or Stokowski's orchestral
>transcription- left me cold.

There are at least two other string quartet versions, by the Koch Quartet
and the Julliard.  I wonder if they used the same arrangement, or changed
keys.  I do not think that they did.  I do know that the Juiliard violist
used an instrument specially built to give an extended low range - an
approach taken over the quartet which appears in Seth's novel, "An Equal
Music".

THE orchestral arrangement is the work of Scherchen, preserved in more
than one recording.

Professor Bernard Chasan
Physics Department, Boston University