The monograph is the first fundamental comprehensive study of the phenomenon of piano transcriptions in the domestic musicology, which is represented in the broader context of related phenomena of music and other art forms. The book consistently addresses instrumental, structural and compositional, stylistic and cultural studies aspects of this kind of creative activity, there can be traced the historical fate of transcription, the conditions of its existence in various artistic era, revealed patterns of the creative process, transforming existing works of art in the new art reality. The author extends the concept of basic trends in the development of instrumental art, on the basis of which the process of formation of performance is studied, explores the phenomenon of virtuosity and art of piano playing justified by their criteria and the typology, it is ргороsed systematic classification of types of transcription determined by techniques of creating transcriptions; he clarifies the place of transcription in the traditional system of genres indicated by specific stylistic interactions in the field of transcription and related fields - cadences, fantasies on the themes.This book is addressed to musicologists, musicians-performers, as well as all readers interested in the history of music and musical performance.