Transcription can consist of taking notes of something we hear or read.
The term transcription , also accepted as transcription , comes from the Latin word transcriptio . This is what the act and consequence of transcribing is called: copying what is written in one part into a different part; represent elements or signs of different kinds through a writing system; or adapt the music created for another or others to an instrument.
Write what you read
The idea of transcription is often used to name the action of writing on a piece of paper what was read in a book , a blackboard, etc., or what was heard . For example: “It took me a while, but I was able to transcribe everything the teacher wrote down on the blackboard during his class,” “Last night I watched a very good cooking show where they prepared noodles although I couldn't transcribe the recipe.” to prepare them at home” , “My boss asked me to send him the transcript of the last assembly by email” .
Students rely on the transcription to have a record of what they learned in each lesson, so that they can review it to enhance learning. The work meetings of certain companies require the transcription of the conversations to give them an official nature and to be able to review them later.
in music
In the field of music , transcription involves transferring an expression to pass it from one code to another without modifying its essence. In this way its content can be reinterpreted and understood even if it was created centuries ago, with a notation system very different from the one we use today. This is necessary and very frequent when studying very old pieces, just as it is in literature when we try to read works that were written in old Spanish. Folkloric pieces and those that did not have an official written version, because they were transmitted orally , are the ones that are usually transcribed.
In this area, transcription is also understood as the action of taking a written piece and adapting it so that it can be performed by another instrument . For example: adapting the orchestra part to make it possible to play on the piano. In this case there is a rewriting, a series of alterations that are more evident, but the objective of preserving the essence of the work is maintained. We must understand that an orchestra can have many families of instruments, each with its own staff, and that a pianist could not play them all simultaneously. In addition, there are stylistic issues that are specific to each instrument, arrangements or "effects" that are not possible in all of them, which is why it is necessary to choose the most appropriate ones.
The same can be done between an instrument and the voice (although this is also considered an instrument) or vice versa. It is not uncommon to find pieces that were written for violin and piano, for example, with versions arranged especially for the violin part to be played by a soprano , either with lyrics or in vocal form. This can give a work new life and bring it to a different audience, as well as allowing musicians to explore new ways of performing it.
One form of musical transcription consists of adapting old pieces to current notation.
in biology
For biology , transcription is one of the steps carried out in genetic or gene expression . Specifically, it refers to the copying of a deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA ) sequence into a ribonucleic acid ( RNA ) sequence.
Genetic expression consists of translating the information contained in the DNA of genes into the composition of proteins . In the framework of transcription, the enzyme known as RNA polymerase is used to copy the DNA sequence into an RNA sequence. The RNA , in turn, then acts as an intermediary in the transfer of information from DNA to protein.