I have noticed over time, as I arrange more pieces by more composers, the ease of said arrangements varies wildly from composer to composer and even within the same composer. But, at the same time, I see enough consistency to put composers into specific Arrangement Difficulty categories from the Easy to the Super Hard. I sometimes get the crave to arrange a piece by a composer. Sometimes it’s because it’s one of my favorites from said composer like Mozart and Horn Concerto no. 2. Sometimes it’s out of curiosity or just to see if I can do it like the 1 time I tried arranging a Bach piece and let’s just say that it didn’t turn out well. And sometimes it’s because I want to learn a piece, but can’t find an arrangement of the full piece (this is particularly true for piano arrangements). Composers from vastly different eras end up in the same difficulty and likewise, composers from the same era end up in completely different difficulties. Here are the composers I have arranged and some that I might arrange, sorted by Arrangement Difficulty.
Easy
These are the ones that I can arrange fast, sometimes within hours, and are easy to arrange for just about any ensemble balanced in registers with minimal tweaking. 2 of these are from the Classical Era and others from eras before and after. These include:
Known
Haydn
Easiest of any composer thus far to arrange
Mozart
Almost, but not quite as easy as Haydn. Sometimes I actually have to add notes to Mozart and Haydn rather than the subtraction I have to do with Beethoven when arranging.
Debussy
Despite the more adventurous harmonies, I find it easier to arrange than say Chopin.
Tchaikovsky
Despite the large orchestra in some of his works, I can always reduce it to piano very easily as there’s a lot of doubling.
Estimated
None
Medium
These are the ones for which I need to do more tweaking, but I still find relatively easy to arrange, takes just a little bit more time to do the arrangement. And this is where the ensemble really starts to make a difference in the time.
Known
Chopin
Not as easy to arrange as Mozart, especially those cadenzas, but still not that hard.
Vivaldi
Relatively easy to arrange for duet, haven’t bothered with other ensembles yet.
Estimated
Handel
Mendelssohn
Schubert
Pachelbel
Brahms <- Despite a style similar to Beethoven, I think it would be easier for me to arrange Brahms than it is for me to arrange Beethoven.
Hard
These are the ones for which I need to make significant changes to make it work, while still trying to keep the harmonic and melodic integrity of the piece in question. Example, a cluster chord shows up in the left hand under the right hand playing a more normal chord and I have to fit a 9 note chord into a quartet, can’t do it, I have to distill the chord to its harmonic backbone. Or another example, a long sustained 4 note chord shows up and the left hand is still playing the bass line underneath it, I have to turn the chord into an arpeggio(by the way, these examples are from the same arrangement I did a couple years back, that F minor sonata by Beethoven I arranged for a string quartet, which among other Beethoven arrangements brings Beethoven into the Hard zone).
Known
Beethoven
My favorite composer of all time, and the hardest so far that I have arranged, very few easy arrangements.
Estimated
Liszt
Rachmaninoff
Mahler
Paganini
Shostakovich
Mussorgsky
Bach
Super Hard
These are the ones that are so complex(like more complex than Beethoven or Liszt) and/or dissonant(Secundal chords, polychords, etc.) that I couldn’t even imagine doing an arrangement of one of their pieces. They are all Modern Era/Impressionist
Known
None
Estimated
Holst
Stravinsky
Ravel
Satie
Prokofiev
Schoenberg
Sorry if I made any mistakes spelling the names of some of these composers, I tried to minimize them.