I am arranging the Moonlight Sonata for woodwind quartet. The adagio and the minuet are simple enough to transcribe note for note. But the presto, that is hard. I mean there are super fast arpeggios and alberti bass in there. I realize I won't get all the notes in just a woodwind quartet. I would need an orchestra to be able to transcribe all the notes. But how can I go from something like this:
a piano solo performance of the 3rd movement, to something for woodwind quartet? What about the notes below the bassoon's range, should I raise the whole bassoon part up an octave? How should I go about the super fast arpeggios? I really need some help transcribing this presto movement. I have been told by 1 person to not do it but I mean if I can do the adagio and the minuet with very few modifications, I should be able to transcribe the Presto as well.
EDIT:
For the first and second movements I have done this while transcribing it:
Bass notes lower than Bb below the staff --- Raise bassoon part by an octave(in fact, in the first movement, all but the last few notes in the bassoon part are up an octave from the corresponding bass note on the piano.
Octaves in the bass clef --- Clarinet takes upper part of the octave, bassoon takes lower part of the octave
Lower treble line or in the case of the first movement, the triplets --- Oboe takes this part
Highest line -- Flute takes this part
Ending measures ---- All instruments play in octaves and chords.
With the Presto, not only is it faster but it tends towards arpeggios and alberti bass instead of clear melodic and bass lines. The reason I have clarinet doubling bassoon is because it can go lower than the oboe can. One thing I have been doing is writing it in concert pitch(If I left it with the clarinet transposed from concert pitch as usual, the clarinet part would have 7 sharps and 7 sharps is rare to find for any instrument, even for piano, but it is especially rare for woodwinds).