Wade, Stephen. "The Route of 'Bonaparte's Retreat': From 'Fiddler Bill' Stepp to Aaron Copland." American Music 18 (Winter 2000): 343-69.
Copland's "Hoe-Down," from the ballet suite Rodeo, holds an esteemed place in American symphonic literature, especially given Copland's tendency to incorporate identifiable tunes into his music. One such tune has its history in an eighteenth-century violin ballad, Bonaparte's Retreat. The title of the tune reflected American adulation of Napoleon as a war hero. A Lakeville, Kentucky fiddler, William Hamilton (Bill) Stepp, changed the tempo of the original tune from slow and stately (meant to symbolize the "retreat") to fast and romping in order to give it the effect of a rousing square dance. He enlivened the melody by adding triplet pickups and changed the function of the drone overtones from evoking bagpipes to displaying pure fiddle techniques. Alan Lomax recorded Stepp's rendition in the 1930s, and Ruth Crawford Seeger subsequently compiled it in Our Singing Country. In turn, Copland used it as part of a collage of folk tunes presented in "Hoe-Down," seeking to capture the American spirit.
Works: Copland: "Hoe-Down" from Rodeo (357-65).
Sources: Bonaparte's Retreat as performed by William Hamilton Stepp (353-57). (KJL)
Index classifications: 1900s
Wagner, Gottfried H. "'Lebe im Augenblick--lebe in der Ewigkeit': Kultur und Musik im Konzentrationslager Theresienstadt." Das Orchester: Zeitschrift für Orchester und Rundfunk-Chorwesen 43/9 (1995): 10-14.
Index classifications: 1900s
Waite, William G. "The Abbreviation of the Magnus Liber." Journal of the American Musicological Society 14 (Summer 1961): 147-58.
Anonymous IV's statement that Perotin shortened the Magnus Liber and made "many better clausulae or puncta" testifies to two different types of revision. In the first case, existing discantus passages were replaced by more newly-composed ones; sometimes, this serves to actually lengthen the passage in question. In the other case, existing organum passages were replaced by discantus. This hypothesis is supported by the way in which the substitute clausulae are arranged within the fascicles by the scribe of Florence, Bibl. Laurenziana, pluteus 29.1.
Works: Regnum mundi (148); Alleluya: Nativitas (152-56). (FC)
Index classifications: Polyphony to 1300
Waite, William G. The Rhythm of Twelfth-Century Polyphony. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954.
Index classifications: Polyphony to 1300
Waite, William G. "Discantus, Copula, Organum." Journal of the American Musicological Society 5 (Summer 1952): 77-87.
Coming to a universal understanding of certain terms related to the motet is essential in comprehending the genre. Discantus is a technique that combines two modal parts containing the same amount of notes. Organum combines the modal voice with only one note in the tenor, while copula is a type of discantus that actually combines features of both of the previous techniques. The motet Alleluia Posui adjutorium uses copula, as evidenced by a passage in which the borrowed material appears in the first rhythmic mode with several longae separated into two breves. In these instances, the line is manipulated in one of two ways. Sometimes a plica is used, in which a line is added to the final note of a ligature to show the division of the note into two. Other times, the line is placed after a note to denote a rest or pause. In the case of this motet, a plica is utilized.
Works: Motet: Alleluia Posui adjutorium (85-87).
Sources: Judea et Jerusalem (85). (RCD)
Index classifications: Polyphony to 1300
Walker, Alan. "Schumann, Liszt and the C Major Fantasie, Op. 17: A Declining Relationship." Music and Letters 60 (April 1979): 156-65.
The manuscript discovery of Schumann's revised C Major Fantasy sheds some light on the composer's reasons for revisions. The score, which was originally conceived as a tribute to Beethoven and which thus includes quotations from An die ferne Geliebte in both the first and last movements, in its new version received a dedication to Franz Liszt. Furthermore, Schumann crossed out the titles "Ruinen," "Siegesbogen," and "Sternbild" and deleted the above-mentioned Beethoven quotation that rounded off the final movement, replacing it with an arpeggio ending. Walker suggests that the Liszt dedication was Schumann's reaction to a favorable article Liszt wrote on Schumann's keyboard music in La revue et gazette musicale but also to Liszt's dedication of his newly composed Paganini Studies to Clara. Since Liszt was the driving force behind the plan to erect a statue in the honor of Beethoven, Schumann must have felt that his Fantasy would be the appropriate piece to show his gratitude.
Works: Schumann: Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17. (AG)
Index classifications: 1800s
Walker, Thomas. "Sui tenor francesi nei mottetti del '200 [French Tenors in 13th-century motets]." In Musica popolare e musica d'arte nel tardo Medioevo, ed. Paolo Emilio Carapezza, Fabio Carboni, Agostino Ziino, Giuseppe Donato, Alberto Gallo, Nino Pirrota, and Thomas Walker, 309-36. Palermo: Officina di Studi Medioevalli, 1982.
Index classifications: Polyphony to 1300
Wallach, Laurence. "The New England Education of Charles Ives." Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1973.
Index classifications: 1800s
Walser, Robert. "Eruptions: Heavy Metal Appropriations of Classical Virtuosity." Popular Music 11 (October 1992): 263-308. Reprinted as Chapter 3 in Robert Walser, Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1993.
Although heavy metal music is typically viewed as removed from the classical tradition, the most influential heavy metal guitarists of the last two decades were in their turn highly influenced by the classical tradition, particularly in expressions of virtuosity. These influences range from straightforward borrowing of classical melodies or harmonic progressions to exploring the values associated with being a classical artist and a virtuoso. The reasons for direct quotation vary. Emerson, Lake and Palmer created a 1972 remake of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition for the purpose of elevating public taste. Rainbow' s hit Difficult to Cure (1981), featuring guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, quotes Beethoven's Ode to Joy with an altered meter and a new introduction, finishing with sounds of laughter. The intent of this example is parody. Perhaps the most subtle form of appropriation lies not in quotation but in adopting values associated with classical music artistry. Yngwie Malmsteen represents not only the height of virtuosity, but also the nineteenth-century concept of the separation between artist and society. Malmsteen is a self-proclaimed "genius" whose style focuses on elitism and experimentation. The most compelling reason to examine the relationship between heavy metal and the classical tradition is heavy metal guitarists' increasing interest in classical models. Electric guitars provide the closest analogy to the virtuosic approaches to the organ, piano, and violin of past centuries.
Works: Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Pictures at an Exhibition (266); Deep Purple / Ritchie Blackmore, Highway Star (268-69); Rainbow / Ritchie Blackmore, Difficult to Cure (270); Edward Van Halen, Eruption (271-77); Ozzy Osbourne / Randy Rhoads, Goodbye to Romance (281).
Sources: Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition; Beethoven, Ode to Joy from Symphony No. 9 in D Minor; Rodolphe Kreutzer, Caprice Study #2 for Violin; Pachelbel, Canon in D. (FMM)
Index classifications: 1900s, Popular
Walter, Rudolf. "Themen gregorianischer Herkunft in Johann Sebastian Bachs Orgelwerken." Musik und Altar 2 (1950): 174-78.
Index classifications: 1700s
Wanninger, Forrest Irving. "Dies Irae: Its Use in Non-Liturgical Music from the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century." Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1962.
The Dies Irae, a rhymed sequence, was probably written by Thomas of Celano in the thirteenth century. Accepted as part of the Requiem Mass early in the fourteenth century, it was significant in early polyphonic settings of the Requiem. The words continued to be important in later Requiem settings, but the melody found its way into secular music from the beginning of the nineteenth century and with universal appeal, attained a character far removed from its original place in the church service. Background information on each composer and discussions of his usage of the Dies Irae are provided for the following works:
Works: Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique; Liszt: Totentanz; Saint-Saëns: Danse Macabre; Mussorgsky: Songs and Dances of Death; Rachmaninoff: [??]; Honegger: La Danse des Morts, Chausson: Printemps triste; Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel; Respighi: Impressioni brasiliane; Vaughan Williams: Tudor Portraits, Schelling: A Victory Ball; Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 6; Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suite No. 3; Mahler: Symphony No. 2. (JP)
Index classifications: 1800s, 1900s
Ward, Charles. "Charles Ives: The Relationship Between Aesthetic Theories and Compositional Processes." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 1974.
Index classifications: 1800s, 1900s
Ward, Charles. "The Use of Hymn Tunes as an Expression of 'Substance' and 'Manner' in the Music of Charles E. Ives. 1874-1954." M.M. thesis, University of Texas at Austin, 1969.
Index classifications: 1800s, 1900s
Ward, John M. "Parody Technique in Sixteenth-century Instrumental Music." In Commonwealth of Music, in Honor of Curt Sachs, ed. Gustave Reese and Rose Brandel, 208-28. New York: Free Press, 1965.
Parody in sixteenth-century instrumental music is a variation device making use of a pre-existing, fully realized composition. Two types exist: one in which quotation and paraphrase are mixed but are presented in the same sequence as the model, and another in which thematic material is freely elaborated without regard to the structure of the model.
Works: Giuolio Severino: Fantasia . . . sopre Susane un jour (209-12); Vincenzo Galilei: Fantasia sopra Anchor che col partire (212-14); Melchior Neusidler: Fantasia super Anchor che col partire (212-14); Nicolas de la Grotte: Fantasia sopra Anchor che col partire (212-14); Antonio de Cabezón: Tiento sobre Malheur me bat (215-16); Enriquez de Valderróbano: Fantasía remediando en algunos pasos al Aspice de Gombert (216-17); Giovanni Paolo Paladino: Fantasie sur la ditte chanson (216, 218); Francesco Spinacino: Recercare a Juli amours (219-21); Luys de Narváez: Fantasía del primer tono por ge sol re ut (222, 224-25); Albert de Rippe: Fantasie (222, 224-25).
Sources: Orlando di Lasso: Susanne un jour (209-12); Cipriano de Rore: Anchor che col partire (212-14); Johannes Ockeghem: Malor me bat (215-16); Nicolas Gombert: Aspice Domine (216-17), Tu pers ton temps (222, 224-25); Jacob Arcadelt: Quand' io pens' al martire (216, 218); Hayne van Ghizeghem: Joli amours (219-21). (FC)
Index classifications: 1500s
Ward, John. "The Use of Borrowed Material in l6th-Century Instrumental Music." Journal of the American Musicological Society 5 (Summer 1952): 88-98.
For the sixteenth-century composer, intabulation of motets, madrigals, and chansons was the key to the mastery of composition. Ward distinguishes three different procedures: (1) the strict intabulation, which may nonetheless include some ornamentation, especially at the beginning where the texture is still thin; (2) the glosa, a transformation "by means of continuous diminution"; and (3) the parody or "parody by means of paraphrase." While parody implies a mixture of faithfully borrowed and original sections (Mudarra), "parody by means of paraphrase" indicates paraphrase of the themes while preserving the voice structure (Cabezón).
Works: Mudarra: Glosa of Josquin's "Cum sancto spiritu" from the Missa Beata Virgine (93-94); Palero: Tiento on Josquin's "Cum sancto spiritu" (94); Cabezón: Glosa of Josquin's "Cum sancto spiritu" from the Missa Beata Virgine (91); Tiento sobre cum sancto spiritu (Josquin) (94); parody of Willaert's Qui la dira (95); parody of Malheur me bat (95); Cavazzoni: canzona on Josquin's Faulte d'argent (95); canzona on Passereau's Il est bel et bon (95); Severino: Parody on Susanna un jour (96); Bull: Two parodies of Palestrina's Vestiva i colli (96). (AG)
Index classifications: 1500s
Ward, Tom R. "Another Mass by Obrecht?" Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis 27 (1977): 102-8.
The Missa Je ne seray is clearly based on Philipet des Pres's Je ne seray plus vert vestus, using the superius of the chanson as the basis for the cantus firmus of the mass. During portions of the mass in which the cantus firmus is not present, other voices of the model are borrowed as melodic material. Comparisons to Obrecht's Missa Fors seulement reveal striking similarities in cantus firmus treatment, quotation of voices other than the cantus firmus, use of ostinato figures, and use of unusual cadential figures. These parallels in compositional approach, especially in the use of the borrowed material, provide strong evidence for the addition of Missa Je ne seray to a list of Obrecht's works.
Works: Obrecht: Missa Je ne seray (102-8), Missa Fors seulement (104-6).
Sources: Philipet des Pres: Je ne seray plus vert vestus (102). (SW)
Index classifications: 1400s
Washburne, Christopher. "The Clave of Jazz: A Caribbean Contribution to the Rhythmic Foundation of an African-American Music." Black Music Research Journal 17, no. 1 (Spring 1997): 57-80.
Scholarship consistently claims African rhythms as the origin of rhythm in early jazz. However, many of the rhythmic cells found in jazz bear more resemblance to Caribbean styles, specifically the son clave, tresillo, and cinquillo found in Cuban music. The Cuban and Haitian immigrants brought their music with them to New Orleans. Many Creole musicians and marching bands borrowed these Caribbean dance rhythms and sounds as a rhythmic foundation for their own music because of their connection with dance. These rhythms then moved into the music of the early jazz pioneers in the rhythmic breaks that occurred in many pieces. The use of these Afro-Cuban rhythms slowly declined as jazz moved away from its dance beginnings. However, these rhythms are continually borrowed in jazz as an homage to past jazz styles and composers.
Works: Da Costa/Edwards/La Rocca/Ragas/Shields/Sbarbaro: Tiger Rag as performed by Louis Armstrong (69-71); Gillespie/Lewis: Two Bass Hit as performed by Miles Davis (71); Barefield/Moten: Toby (71-72); Ellington/Mills/Nemo: Skrontch (71-72); Monk: Rhythm-a-ning (72-73); Clarke/Gillespie: Salt Peanuts (73); Simons/Marks: All of Me (73); Richard M. Jones: Jazzin' Babies Blues as performed by King Oliver (74-75); Caesar/Kahn/Meyer: Crazy Rhythm as performed by Miff Mole (74-75); Barbarin/Russell: Come Back Sweet Papa as performed by Louis Armstrong (75-76).
Sources: Traditional: Son clave, Tresillo, and Cinquillo (57-80). (MDA)
Index classifications: 1900s, Jazz
Watanabe, Hiroshi. "Dentì-juyì-kìi to shite no sakkyoku--Gustav Mahler ni okeru 'Inyì' no kìsatsu [Composition as the repository of tradition--some reflections on quotation in Gustav Mahler's symphonies]." Bigaku 32 (March 1982): 52-66.
Index classifications: 1800s, 1900s
Watanabe, Hiroshi. "Ongaku ni okeru inyo no nintei [Recognition of quotation in music]." Memoirs of Kunitachi Col. of M. 17 (1982): 151-65.
Index classifications: General
Watkins, Glenn E., and Thomasin La May. "Imitatio and Emulatio: Changing Concepts of Originality in the Madrigals of Gesualdo and Monteverdi in the 1590s." In Claudio Monteverdi: Festschrift Reinhold Hammerstein zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. Ludwig Finscher, 453-87. Laaber: Laaber Verlag, 1986.
Imitazione in the Renaissance can describe three distinct types of borrowing: (1) following, exemplified in the cantus-firmus technique; (2) imitation proper; and (3) emulation, implying a critical reflection on the model itself. Gesualdo and Monteverdi, despite being regarded as two of the most "original" composers of the 1590s, continued this tradition in their madrigal compositions. In choosing texts that had been previously been set, Gesualdo and Monteverdi seem to both emulate and challenge their predecessors. The techniques of emulatio of both composers range from direct quotation to borrowings of texture and rhythm, and the number of borrowings decline as their respective madrigal careers progress. By the time of Gesualdo's Book VI of 1596 and Monteverdi's Book V of 1605, both composers become fully aware of their own originality, and emulatio ceases to play a significant role in their compositions. This abatement suggests not that the form had been exhausted, but rather that composers had grown tired of imitazione. This new emphasis on the concept of originality marks a significant move away from the past. In his later madrigals, Monteverdi's borrowings thus appear to be simply acts of homage to figures whom he held in particuarly high regard.
Works: Gesualdo: From Il Primo Libro de Madrigali--Baci soavi, e cari (457); Madonna io ben vorrei (457); Non mirar (458); Son si belle le rose (460); From Il Secondo Libro de Madrigali--Caro amoroso neo (462); Dalle odorate (463); Non mi toglia il ben mio (463); From Il Terzo Libro de Madrigali--Ahi, disperata vita (466); Ancidetemi pur, grievi martiri (466). Monteverdi: From Canzonette--Canzonette d'amore (472); Son questi i crespi crini (472); Corse a la morte il povero Narcisso (472); Chi vuol veder un bosco folto (472); Io son fenice (473); Raggi, dov'è'l mio bene (473); From Libro I à 5--A che tormi il ben mio (474); Poi che del mio dolore (475); Ardo sì, ma non t'amo (476); From Libro II--Tutte le bocche belle (479); Crudel, perchè mi fuggi (480); From Libro V--Ahi, come a un vago sol (483); From Libro VIII--Hor che'l ciel e la terra (483). (RVT)
Index classifications: 1500s
Watkins, Glenn. "Uses of the Past: A Synthesis." In Soundings: Music in the Twentieth Century, 640-60. New York: Schirmer Books, 1988.
Composers of recent years have had mixed feelings about the use of music of the past, and they have borrowed in a variety of ways. Surges of interest in borrowing arose around certain occasions. For example, the 400th anniversary of Gesualdo's birth inspired a number of new works in 1960, and this helped create interest in using the works of Monteverdi and Cavalli in the 1960s and 70s. Others have turned to Bach, including Lukas Foss with his innovative use of Bach's Von Himmel Hoch in his Baroque Variations. Beethoven's bicentennial in 1970 inspired composers including Stockhausen and Ginastera to borrow in various ways. Kagel's "meta-collage" of small quotations from Beethoven's most popular works offers an interesting example. The twentieth century has also seen a movement called New Romanticism, consisting of a return to 19th-century tonality. Rochberg's quotation technique led him to a more general stylistic modeling, whereas Berio's use of Mahler was intended to honor him specifically. Eventually, New Romanticism focused more on stylistic modeling than exact references, and with the addition of jazz and ragtime devices, composers achieved a "polystylistic juxtaposition." Many pieces are mentioned, and the article includes an extensive list of modern works and the works from which they borrow. Those listed below are discussed in more detail.
Works: Stravinsky: Monumentum pro Gesualdo ad CD annum (640); Davies: Tenebrae super Gesualdo (642); Foss: Baroque Variations (643); Kagel: Ludwig van (645); Rochberg: Third String Quartet (647-8); Berio: Sinfonia (648-9); Cage: Cheap Imitation (651). (JS)
Index classifications: 1900s
Watkins, Glenn. Pyramids at the Louvre: Music, Culture, and Collage from Stravinsky to the Postmodernists. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1994.
Collage can be seen as a central force in the various arts of the twentieth century, including music. Collage in music should be considered as more than just a collection of other people's music used in another composer's piece. By expanding the idea of collage to include cultural explosions and reconstitutions, unilateral use of European and American ideas by each other, access to art and ideas of the non-Western world, and the mixture of culture and music theory, a strong transition between Modernism and Postmodernism can be followed. The modernist music of Stravinsky and Debussy at the fin-de-siècle introduced orientalist musical theories and sounds into their own music. This use of orientalism led the way for Primitivism and its various guises throughout the rest of the twentieth century. Collage took a front seat in the music and culture of the twentieth century after World War II. The techniques used in early film played an important role for the emergence of collage in post-war music by giving composers the chance to suggest many past musical styles in quick succession without using long transitions. Composers also continued the tradition of using cultural, literary, and architectural collages in their compositions instead of only creating collage by cutting and pasting from earlier composers.
Works: Debussy: Images (23-26); Stravinsky: Le Rossignol (38-49), Le Sacre du printemps (84-100); Milhaud: La Creation du monde (116-21); Krenek: Jonny spielt auf (150-53); Thomson: Four Saints in Three Acts (153-55); Ellington: Black and Tan Fantasy (187-88); Gershwin: Porgy and Bess (195-202); Stravinsky: David, projected collaboration with Cocteau (238-43, 256-64), Three Pieces for String Quartet (260-64); Schoenberg: Pierrot lunaire (282-84); Stravinsky: Renard (285-87); Debussy: The Children's Corner (297-98); Antheil: Ballet mecanique (327-29); Stravinsky: Agon (360-74); Varese: Ameriques (389-90); Satie: Le feu d'artifice (399); Ives: Flanders Field (400); Britten: War Requiem (405); Rouse: Symphony No. 1 (407-8); Schnittke: Symphony No. 1 (410); Gubaidulina: Offertorium (411-12); Riley: Salome Dances for Peace (414-15); Berio: Sinfonia (416-17), Rendering (417); Berg: Violin Concerto (430-32); Britten: The Prince of the Pagodas (445-46).
Sources: Traditional: America (400), Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean (400); Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 (407-8); Lasso: Stabat Mater (411); Beethoven: Grosse Fugue (410); Bach: The Musical Offering (410); Mahler: Symphony No. 2, Resurrection (416). (MDA)
Index classifications: 1900s, Jazz
Watson, Derek. Bruckner. The Master Musicians, ed. Sir Jack Westrup. London: J. M. Dent and Sons, 1955.
In a biography of Bruckner, Watson considers borrowing in the section on his music, particulary in his symphonies, from page 84. This section deals with the quotations and their sources along with a discussion of each symphony, but does not deal with the "why" to any extent. Watson has found quotations that other biographers have not, but does not draw any significance from the findings. (BJT)
Index classifications: 1800s
Watson, J. Arthur. "Beethoven's Debt to Mozart." Music and Letters 18 (July 1937): 248-58.
Beethoven paid tribute to Mozart through imitation and borrowing, yet demonstrated his own genius in accepting the influence while assessing his own personality. The article focuses primarily on chamber works, and treats probable influences, direct influences, and "deliberate imitations or unconscious reminiscences" of Mozart's muse.
Works: Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3 (249), String Trio, Op. 3 (250), String Quartet, Op. 18, No. 1 (251, 253), String Quintet, Op. 29 (251, 255), Duo for Clarinet and Bassoon (1792) (253), Duet for Augengläser (253-54), String Trio, Op. 9 (253), Serenade for Flute, Violin, and Viola, Op. 25 (253), Quintet for Piano, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, and French Horn, Op. 16 (253), Oboe Trio (254-55), String Quartet, Op. 18, No. 4 (254-55), String Trio in C Minor (256), String Quartet, Op. 18, No. 6 (256), String Quartet, Op. 56, No. 1 (256-57), String Quartet, Op. 131 (256-57); Mozart: Quartet in E-flat Major, String Quintet, K. 515 (254). (MM/JPB)
Index classifications: 1700s, 1800s
Wayne, David. "Parodies, Contrafacta, and Paraphrases of the Motet Alle Psallite cum Luya/Alleluya in Medieval English Music." D.M.A. diss., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1977.
Index classifications: Polyphony to 1300, 1300s
Weakland, Rembert. "The Beginnings of Troping." The Musical Quarterly 44 (October 1958): 477-88.
The history of tropes can be compared to the history of the sequence, using evidence drawn from the manuscript Vienna, Nationalbibliothek, 1609. The notation of this manuscript places it among the group of existing tenth-century St. Gall tropers. A comparative list of tropes found in V. 1609 and St. Gall MS 484 is provided. Three distinct groups of tropes can be identified. Group I consists of purely musical inserts found after each phrase of the liturgical composition. This type was already in decline and disappeared by the eleventh century. Group II includes a metrical introduction to the liturgical composition, while troping within the piece remains melismatic. Group III is similar to this type, but both both textual and purely melodic troping are found. The melodic inserts are sung twice, first with text and next without it. The interpolated texts were added to existing melismas. Later, the text and music for the interpolations were composed together. (FC)
Index classifications: Monophony to 1300
Weber, Édith. "Le Cantus Firmus 'Ein Feste Burg': Une aventure littéraire et musicale." In Itinéraires du Cantus Firmus, vol. 2, De l'Orient à l'Occident, 117-36. Sorbonne: Presses de l'Université de Paris, 1995.
Ein feste Burg has had many adaptations. The tune came to symbolize the fighting march of the Protestants in the manner of a national anthem, such as La Marseillaise, in its popularity and rousing characteristics. Indeed, Ein feste Burg is associated with the beginning of the Reformation. The repetitive structure of the tune, its simplicity, and its declamation attracted several composers. Though questions arise about the exact date of the piece, as well as Luther's organization of the text, the historical significance of the piece emerges over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as several composers adapt it in cantus firmus settings. Johann Walter collaborated with Luther to create a two-voice setting of the tune. Johann Kugelmann set the tune with three voices and, like Walter, placed the cantus firmus in the tenor. Martin Agricola also kept the melody in the tenor but added a fourth voice, increasing the imitative possibilities. Other settings in the sixteenth century adapt the four-voice setting and the imitative characteristics, although Lukas Osiander, Rogier Michael, and Sethus Calvisius all place the cantus firmus in the superius. Seventeenth-century settings exhibit more ornamentation, particularly by means of chromaticism, in the treatment of the cantus firmus, evinced by composers such as Bartholomaeus Gesius, David Scheidemann, and Hans Leo Hassler, who sought to increase the expression of the tune. Subsequent adaptations, such as Meyerbeer's spiritual associations in Les Huguenots and Debussy's appropriation of the chorale to represent German aggression in En blanc et noir, resemble emblematic quotations, showing the distance the tune traveled from its original Lutheran functions.
Works: Johann Walter: Ein feste Burg (127-28); Johann Kugelmann: Ein feste Burg (128-29); Martin Agricola ou Sore: Ein feste Burg (129-30); Sigmund Hemmel: Der ganze Psalter Davids (130); Lukas Osiander: Ein feste Burg (131); Rogier Michael: Ein feste Burg (131); Sethus Calvisius: Ein feste Burg (131-32); Bartholomaeus Gesius ou Gese: Ein feste Burg (132); David Scheidemann: Ein feste Burg (132); Melchior Vulpius: Ein feste Burg (133); Hassler: Kirchengesänge, Psalmen und Geistliche Lider (133); Praetorius: Musae Sioniae (134); Meyerbeer: Les Huguenots (135); Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Reformation (135); Debussy: Suite pour deux pianos: En blanc et noir (135); Langlais: Suite oecuménique (135).
Sources: Luther: Ein feste Burg (117-26). (KJL)
Index classifications: 1500s, 1600s, 1800s, 1900s
Webster, James. "Schubert's Sonata Form and Brahms's First Maturity." 19th-Century Music 2 (July 1978): 18-35; and 3 (July 1979): 52-71.
Brahms's "first maturity" consists of the period up to 1865. Influence of Schubert is evident in Brahms's sonata form, particularly in the juxtaposition of major and minor tonalities, closed forms with lyrical melodies, double second themes, structural use of remote keys, and the transformation of these elements in the recapitulation. Webster is able to relate at least one or two works by Schubert to each early work of Brahms mentioned in this article. Some of the comparisons are general and can be interpreted as stylistic tendencies of the time, rather than specific characteristics of Schubert, but some direct quotations are used and discussed as well.
Works: Beethoven: Sonata Appasionata (58, 68), Symphony No. 2; Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 5 (68), Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34 (52, 53, 65-69), String Sextet in B-flat Major, Op. 18 (52), Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25 (52, 62-65), Piano Concerto in D Minor, Op. 15 (53), Piano Sonata, Op. 1 (58), Trio in B Major, Op. 8 (58, 59), Serenade in D Major, Op. 11 (54, 59-60), Serenade in A Major, Op. 16 (54, 59-60), Sextet in B-flat Major, Op. 18 (61), Piano Quartet in A Major, Op. 26 (62), Sextet in G Major (68-70), Cello Sonata in E Minor (68-69), Horn Trio (68), Symphony No. 3 (70), Tragic Overture (70), Symphony No. 2 (70), Academic Festival Overture (70), Cello Sonata in F Major, Op. 99 (70), Clarinet Trio (70), Clarinet Sonata in F Major, Op. 120, No. 1 (70); Schubert: Wanderer Fantasy (58), Am Meer (58), Die Stadt. (PRZ)
Index classifications: 1800s
Wegman, Rob C. "Another 'Imitation' of Busnoys' Missa L'homme armé--and Some Observations on Imitatio in Renaissance Music." Journal of the Royal Musical Association 114 (1989): 189-202.
Antoine Busnoys's Missa L'Homme armé served as a model not only for Obrecht's Missa L'Homme armé but also for an anonymous Missa de Sancto Johanne Baptista (ca. 1480s or 1490s), which is also closely related to Obrecht's Mass. The anonymous Mass cycle raises many questions surrounding its creation. Musical imitatio would at first seem most relevant to this case. The concept of imitatio, as defined by Renaissance rhetorical theory, is scarcely applicable to Renaissance music, however, and should therefore be used only with circumspection. In considering the musical practices of borrowing, quotation, and imitation as counterparts of rhetorical imitatio, problems of semantic ambiguity and historiographical distortion are certain. Willem Elders's approach of considering these compositional practices as creating a symbolic connection to pre-existent material eliminates these problems, but it is concerned only with symbolism. The term "intertextuality," borrowed from literary criticism, is most appropriate here. (DBO)
Index classifications: 1400s
Westrup, Jack A. "Bach's Adaptations." In Bence Szabolcsi septuagenario, ed. D. Bartha, 517-31. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1969.
Index classifications: 1700s
Westrup, Jack A. "Parodies and Parameters." Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association 100 (1973-74): 19-31.
Index classifications: General
Whaples, Miriam K. "Mahler and Schubert's A Minor Sonata D. 784." Music and Letters 65 (July 1984): 255-63.
Several allusions to pre-existent works which appear in Mahler's music are noted: a tune by Thomas Koschat in the Fifth Symphony, Beethoven's Violin Sonata Op. 96 in "Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt" from the Second Symphony, Schubert's Piano Trio in E-flat Major, D. 929 in Mahler's Third Symphony, the Piano Sonata in G Major, D. 894 in "Lob des hohen Verstanden" from the Wunderhorn Lieder, the D Major Piano Sonata, D. 850 in the finale of the Fourth, and the E-flat Major Piano Sonata, D. 568 in the first movement of the same symphony. A whole group of quotations is drawn from Schubert's Piano Sonata in A Minor, D.784. The allusions to this work are most prevalent in the First and Seventh symphonies. Mahler was well acquainted with this sonata as a performer so that the allusions to it are of biographical (read autobiographical) significance. Mahler's involvement with the Schubert sonata, both as performer and composer, spans some thirty years; the references to it in his own music are identified as largely unconscious. Various other allusions by Mahler both to others and to himself are noted.
Works: Mahler: Symphony No. 3 (256), "Lob des hohen Verstanden," from Wünderhorn Lieder (256), Symphony No. 4 (256), Symphony No. 7 (259), Symphony No. 1 (260), "Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt," from Symphony No. 2 (262), Symphony No. 5 (263). (DCB)
Index classifications: 1800s, 1900s
Wheelock, Gretchen A. "Marriage à la Mode: Haydn's Instrumental Works "Englished" for Voice and Piano." Journal of Musicology 8 (Summer 1990): 357-97.
Index classifications: 1700s
White, Harold Ogden. Plagiarism and Imitation During the English Renaissance. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1935.
Index classifications: 1500s, 1600s
White, Julian. "National Traditions in the Music of Roberto Gerhard." Tempo, no. 184 (March 1993): 2-13.
The middle period works of Roberto Gerhard utilize the Spanish musical past through borrowing pre-existent material. His attitude toward Spanish music, both art and popular, was instilled in Gerhard by his teacher Felipe Pedrell. Gerhard then transformed this musical material to represent a universal significance. Some works simply demonstrate the influence of folk material in melodic shape and intervallic content, while others employ borrowed folk songs. Gerhard utilized folk material in a substantial number of compositions in folksong settings and other works. Through his study with Arnold Schoenberg, Gerhard was able to incorporate this preexistent material into his newly acquired technique, for example in the Sardanas where he modifies the form and harmonic content of the dance. In works such as Don Quixote and Pandora, his borrowing reveals a symbolic feature that he retains in many other compositions. His opera The Duenna, a Spanish national opera in many respects, utilizes popular and art music traditions. Gerhard also subjected the borrowed material to twelve-tone procedures, for example in the Harpsichord Concerto and Cello Sonata. In his later, more abstract works, this Spanish identity becomes subtler, as in the Concerto for Orchestra and Symphony No. 4.
Works: Gerhard: Seven Haiku (3), Dos Apunts (3), Cantata: L'Alta Naixença del Rei en Jaume (4, 6), Albada, Interludi I Danza (4, 7), Pedrelliana (4), Sardanas (6), Don Quixote (7), Pandora (8), Violin Concerto (8-9), The Duenna (9), Three Impromptus (10), Harpsichord Concerto (11), Cello Sonata (11), Nonet (12), Symphony No. 4 (12-13).
Sources: La Tornada del Pelegri (3); El Mal Rico (3); El Cotiló (4, 6, 13); La Cinta Dauvada (6); El Carbonerot (6); L'Escolta (6); El Bon Caçador (7); Assassi per Amor (7); Chacona de Palació (7); Rosa del Folló (8); El Mestre (8); La Germana Rescatada (8); Ad Mortem Festinamus (8, 10); La Marseillaise (9); Sevillanas del 18 siglo (9); Cançó de Batre (10); Las Tres Hojas (10); Copla de Columpio (10); El Contrabandista (10); Los Pelegrinitos (10, 11); Copla de Corro (11); El Paño (12); Retraídaestá la Infanta (12); Salinas: Cantilena Vulgar (7), Canción Muy Popularizada (7); Alicante: Antón Pirulero (8); Grimau: Tirana del Zarandillo (9). (CMH)
Index classifications: 1900s
Whitesell, Lloyd. "Reckless Form, Uncertain Audiences: Responding to Ives." American Music 12 (Fall 1994): 304-19.
Analyses that attempt to uncover formal unity in Ives misinterpret Ives's own formal aesthetic and devalue the heterogeneity in his music. In "The Things Our Fathers Loved" (1917), quotations from "Dixie," "My Old Kentucky Home," "On the Banks of the Wabash," and other tunes project the sense of a casual design--as in a collage, crazy-quilt, or scrapbook. The tune-fragments complicate the role of the listener, who is asked to follow discontinuities and enjoy the broken surface. Ives referred to Emerson in discussing unity and concluded that formal unity is less important than unity of vision. Alternative modes of listening which do not privilege unity enhance the appreciation of Ives's creative freedom. (EB)
Index classifications: 1900s
Whitesell, Lloyd. "Men with a Past: Music and the 'Anxiety of Influence.'" 19th-Century Music 18 (Fall 1994): 152-67.
Harold Bloom's theory of "anxiety of influence" sees an Oedipal struggle between the poet and his forebears, in which the poet is forced to misread his predecessors, assert priority over them, and clear creative space for himself. Some musicians, including Benjamin Britten and Robert Schumann, have cited the past as a supportive rather than threatening presence. Rather than a metaphor of male aggression, these composers and others like them see artistic creation as a form of "gift," using a metaphor suggested by Lewis Hyde. In this view the individual becomes "vulnerable" and thus feminized under Bloom's model. In Bloom's mythology, the artist is confronted with two obstacles, sexual anxiety (the Sphinx) and creative anxiety (the Cherub). Because Bloom's model has eliminated the female element of the classical Freudian interpretation of the Oedipal triangle, the model that emerges is one in which homosexual desire becomes a strong element. Social homophobia represents a reaction against traditional structures of gender and power; thus, the homoerotic impulse must be channeled into more acceptable avenues of rivalry and violence. At the end of the nineteenth century, changes in the Victorian definition of "femininity" forced men to "remythologize their claims to authority." It is not a coincidence that Bloom formulated his theory in the 1970s, when feminist, gay, and lesbian voices were challenging the cultural definition of masculinity. Bloom's model remains in "mythical space" by failing to take into account other arenas of cultural conflict, such as nationalism, artistic attitude, and personal psychology. In the final analysis, Bloom's theory perpetuates old ideologies and prevents a thorough consideration of the work of art. (FC)
Index classifications: General, 1800s, 1900s
Widmann, Wilh. "Motette und Messe Dies sanctificatus von Palestrina." Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch 21 (1908): 72-90.
Index classifications: 1500s
Wierzbicki, James. "Sampling and Quotation." St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 21 November, 1993. Available from http://pages.sbcglobal.net/jameswierzbicki/borrowing.htm. (Accessed 8 October 2002)
Many popular music groups, especially rap groups, have been sued by other artists and their publishers for using copyrighted music without permission, even though the groups generally took a small section of the piece in question and thus the quotation falls under the fair use clause. However, by looking at quotations more closely, one can find an extramusical meaning to the quoted material. Because of this, many of the quotations should not be seen as plagiarism as long as the composer does not borrow too much from a previous source.
Works: Puccini: Madame Butterfly; Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini; Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15.
Sources: Dees/Orbison: Oh Pretty Woman; The Star-Spangled Banner; Dies Irae; Rossini: William Tell. (MDA)
Index classifications: 1900s, Popular
Wierzbicki, James. "Sampling and Quotation." St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 28 April, 1991. Available from http://pages.sbcglobal.net/jameswierzbicki/borrowing.htm. (Accessed 8 October 2002)
Sampling and quotation in popular music resembles borrowing in Western art music. DJ sampling not only "recycles" music, it also uses specific performances from recordings. This commonly brings in characteristics of timbre and the performer's interpretation from the sampled music that is not found in other forms of musical borrowing. Because of these added factors in sampling, one finds a kind of iconography that the DJs bring into their music that is noticed by the listeners. The idea of extra-musical meaning, albeit through iconography in DJ sampling, is not new. Composers of Western art music have commonly inserted previously composed music into their own compositions for extramusical meanings. These meanings within the borrowing do not hinder the composer's, nor the DJ's, originality in any way.
Works: Berg: Violin Concerto; Wuorinen: Machaut mon chou; Respighi: The Birds; Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor; Mahler: Symphony No. 1; Ives: Three Places in New England; Ravel: Bolero; Copland: Symphony No. 3; Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition.
Sources: Brown: Funky Drummer; J.S. Bach: O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort BWV 60; Schubert: Death and the Maiden; Mahler: Songs of a Wayfarer; Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man; Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition. (MDA)
Index classifications: 1800s, 1900s, Popular
Wilder, Robert Dinsmoor. "The Masses of Orlando di Lasso with Emphasis on His Parody Technique." Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1952.
Index classifications: 1500s
Wilheim, András. "Erik Satie's Gregorian Paraphrases." Studia Musicologica 25 (1983): 229-37.
Satie does not borrow actual Gregorian tunes although there may be some direct quotations in the form of certain melodic steps and turns. He imitated ("paraphrased"), however, the style of the Gregorian tunes as they were arranged by Louis Niedermeyer, i.e., providing each note with a new harmony and preserving the (modal) cadential turns. What he heard from the Benedictines of Solesmes did not influence him at all.
Works: Satie: Ogives (232-35), Four Preludes (233-35), Sonneries de la Rose + Croix (233-35), Messe des pauvres (234-36), Danses gothiques (235). (AG)
Index classifications: 1800s
Wilkes, William Leroy Jr. "Borrowed Music in Mormon Hymnals." Ph.D. diss., University of Southern California, 1957.
Index classifications: 1800s, 1900s
Williams, Alan E. "Kurtág, Modernity, Modernisms." Contemporary Music Review 20, nos. 2-3 (2001): 51-69.
Beginning in the mid-1970s, György Kurtág began to reflect a musical past through quotation, many of which refer to his own personal experiences rather than an attempt to convey universal relevance. Kurtág's music can be discussed in relation to Theodor Adorno's idea of "sedimentation" and the concept of subjective memory described by Georg Lukács. The string quartet Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánsky borrows music of Anton Webern, specifically the canonic structure of the sixth movement of Cantata No. 2, and Endre Szervánsky's Serenade for String Orchestra. Kurtág utilizes pre-existent material to evoke an historical awareness of musical material similar to Adorno's concept of sedimentation; that music has an historic relationship to society and may or may not have relevance to that society. For Kurtág, Webern's music recalls the memory of his student years in Paris where he extensively studied this music. Furthermore, Kurtág's Op. 1 string quartet is inextricably connected to the works of Webern. Quotation thus creates a complex web of memory in Kurtág's compositions.
Works: Kurtág: Officium breve in memorium Andreae Szervánsky, Op. 26 (52, 56, 60, 62-66), Játékok (51, 56-57, 62-66).
Sources: Webern: Cantata No. 2 (52, 60, 63); Szervánsky: Serenade for String Orchestra (52, 60, 64-65); Kurtág: Játékok (51, 56-57, 62-66), String Quartet, Op. 1 (63-64). (CMH)
Index classifications: 1900s
Williams, J. Kent. "Oscar Peterson and the Art of Paraphrase: The 1965 Recording of Stella by Starlight." In Annual Review of Jazz Studies 9 1997-98, ed. Edward Berger, David Cayer, Henry Martin, and Dan Morgenstern, 25-43. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2000.
André Hodeir was perhaps the first writer to apply the term paraphrase to jazz. He used the term in 1956 to describe a type of improvised melody that lies between two extremes: the unaltered, original melody (called the "head" by jazz musicians) and the ostensibly new melody (called the "chorus phrase") created by the jazz improviser over the harmonic framework of the original melody. In jazz pianist Oscar Peterson's 1965 recording of Victor Young's 1946 song Stella by Starlight, Peterson begins with a version of Young's melody that stays close to the original, but departs from it sufficiently so as to warrant being designated as paraphrase. In the 1960s Peterson continued to begin performances of Stella by Starlight with this same paraphrased version of the song. It thus represents Peterson's "composed" version of the original melody.
Works: Peterson: Stella by Starlight (25-43).
Sources: Young: Stella by Starlight (25-43). (STG)
Index classifications: 1900s, Jazz
Winemiller, John T. "Handel's Borrowing and Swift's Bee: Handel's 'Curious' Practice and the Theory of Transformative Imitation." Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1994.
Index classifications: 1700s
Winemiller, John T. "Recontextualizing Handel's Borrowing." Journal of Musicology 15 (Fall 1997): 444-70.
In the early eighteenth century, the concepts of "intellectual property" and "proprietary authorship" were just emerging and entering English, German, and French law. English jurist William Blackstone, in the second volume of his Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69), argues forcefully for the author's product as intellectual property. Jonathan Swift's Battel of the Books (1704) sets out the argument that borrowing material was acceptable so long as the borrower transformed it substantially. This view is also held by Johann Mattheson in Der volkommene Cappellmeister (1739). Handel's Acis and Galatea shows how transformative borrowing was employed. The librettist, probably John Gay, used numerous sources to create the text of the masque; these included Pope, Hughes, Dryden, and others. Handel's musical borrowings sometimes changed the nature of the original material altogether. Most often, however, Handel borrowed certain motives, transforming and absorbing them into the musical texture.
Works: George Frideric Handel: Acis and Galatea, "O ruddier than the cherry" (454-61), "Must I my Acis still bemoan" (458, 463-68), Teseo,"Quanto che è me sian care" (461-66).
Sources: Reinhard Keiser: Janus, "Wann ich dich noch einst erblicke" (456-58), La forza della virtù, "Mit einem schönen Ende" (461-68). (FC)
Index classifications: 1700s
Winn, James Anderson. Unsuspected Eloquence: A History of the Relations between Poetry and Music. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1981.
Index classifications: General
Wiora, Walter. "Die Melodien der Souterliedekens und ihre deutschen Parallelen." In Report of the International Society For Musical Research: Fifth Congress, Utrecht 3-7 July 1952, edited by the Vereiniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschienenis, 438-49. Amsterdam: G. Alsbach, 1953.
Index classifications: 1600s
Wiora, Walter. "Das produktive Umsingen deutscher Kirchenliedweisen in der Vielfalt europäischer Stile." Jahrbuch für Liturgik und Hymnologie 2 (1956): 47-63.
Index classifications: 1500s, 1600s, 1700s, 1800s, 1900s
Wiora, Walter. "Über den religiösen Gehalt in Bruckners Symphonien." In Religiöse Musik in nicht-liturgischen Werken von Beethoven bis Reger, ed. Walter Wiora, 157-84. Regensburg: Gustav Bosse, 1978.
Although Bruckner's piety has been put forth as reason for his use of liturgical music in non-liturgical works, most explanations are too facile. Bruckner's borrowings in his symphonies must be understood in light of his attitude toward other composers, the style of his music in comparison with church music, and his style compared with the beliefs, arts, and institutions of his day. His relationship with Wagner, his foundation in church music, and his fundamentally Romantic harmonic conception are factors, apart from his beliefs, which contributed to his borrowings. (BJT)
Index classifications: 1800s
Wohlberg, Max. "The Music of the Synagogue as a Source of the Yiddish Folksong." Musica Judaica 14 (1999): 33-61.
Not only "stray motifs," but many entire Yiddish folksong melodies can be traced to Jewish liturgical music. Most of these folksongs are metrical and rhythmical although derived from motifs that were sung in the synagogue in an improvised manner free of steady meter. For instance, cantillation motifs from the Ashkenazic High Holiday Pentateuch appear in the folksong Ya-amod Reb Yehude. In some cases, the topic of the folk song is similar to the topic of the prayer source, as a folksong about the approach of winter borrows motifs from the autumn prayer for rain. Other folksongs do not borrow motifs, but use the synagogue modes. The synagogue mode known as the Ukranian-Dorian (G-A-Bb-C#-D-E-F) is used not only in prayers like Mi Sheberakh and Ov Horahamim, but also in folk songs like Dos Fertsente Yor.
Works: Folk Songs: Ya-Amod Reb Yehude (34), S'Yomert Peterburg (36), Akdomus (37), Alef, Indiks Est der Nogid (37), Af b'ri s'iz Nito Vos Tu Gebn (39), Tzvelf a Zeyger (40), Eli Tsiyon (40), Eliyahu Ha-Navi (44-45), Aye-le-lyu-leh (46), Dos Fertsente Yor (48).
Sources: Liturgy: Ashkenazic High Holiday Pentateuch (34), Kol Nidre (38), Geshem (39), Omar Rabbi Elozor (42), Bmeh Madlikim (42), Elu Devorim (42), Aimidah (43), B'fi Y'shorim (45), Mi Sheberakh (48), Ov Horahamim (48). (EU)
Index classifications: General, Popular
Wolff, Christoph. "Mozart's Messiah: 'The Spirit of Handel' from van Swieten's Hands." In Music and Civilization: Essays in Honor of Paul Henry Lang, ed. Edmond Strainchamps and Maria Rika Maniates, 000-000. New York: W. W. Norton, 1984.
Index classifications: 1700s
Wolff, Christoph. "Schubert's 'Der Tod und das Mädchen': Analytical and Explanatory Notes on the Song D. 531 and the Quartet D. 810." In Schubert Studies, ed. Eva Badura-Skoda and Peter Branscombe, 143-172. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Schubert's song "Der Tod und das Mädchen" takes the form of a dialogue in which Death is represented by a slow chordal sequence and the maiden by recitative-style writing. This is probably modeled on very similar procedures in Gluck's Alceste and the cemetery scene from Mozart's Don Giovanni. In addition to a musical reworking in a setting of a similar poem ("Der Jüngling und der Tod," D. 545) composed shortly thereafter, the song also reappears in the String Quartet in D Minor, D. 810. Although the most obvious instance of this is the expanded version of the song's chordal sequence that serves as the theme for the slow movement's variation set, material from the entire song can be seen to be present in the remaining three movements as well, thus imparting a cyclical nature to the work as a whole. (JSL)
Index classifications: 1800s
Wolff, Christoph. "Vivaldi's Compositional Art, Bach, and the Process of 'Musical Thinking.'" In Bach: Essays on His Life and Music, 72-83. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991.
Since the time of Forkel, the study of the music of Vivaldi has generally been carried out with respect to Bach, and has resulted in an overemphasis on the former composer's concertos. While Forkel to some extent oversimplified the significance of Vivaldi to Bach's music, it is nevertheless the case that the study and transcription of Vivaldi's concertos played an important role not only in the formation of Bach's musical style, but also in the development of his "musical thinking." Bach recognized that Vivaldi had developed a system for the composition of instrumental music that was based on a threefold process of order/organization (Ordnung), connection/continuity (Zusammenhang), and relation/proportion (Verhältnis). This process transcends superficial considerations of genre and directly addresses the elaboration of musical material from germinal ideas. Bach's transcriptions of Vivaldi's concertos represent an opportunity to observe this process of "musical thinking" as it unfolds in the elaboration of musical motives. The compositional process consists, then, in the exploration of the potentialities of core ideas: their organization and reorganization, their contribution to the unity of the movement, and their relationship and proportion with respect to other ideas. Such a system of "musical thinking" was instrumental not only in the formation of Bach's style, but also in the gradual dominance of instrumental music in the eighteenth century.
Works: Bach: Concerto for Harpsichord in F Major, BWV 978 (75-83). (AJF)
Index classifications: 1700s
Wolff, Hellmuth Christian. "Die ästhetische Auffassung der Parodiemesse des 16. Jahrhunderts." In Miscelanea en homenaje a monsenor Higinio Anglés, ed. Miguel Querol, 1011-21. Barcelona: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1958-61.
Index classifications: 1500s
Wolff, Hellmuth Christian. "Mendelssohn and Handel." Translated by Ernest Sanders and Luise Eitel. The Musical Quarterly 45 (April 1959): 175-90.
Though Bach's influence on Mendelssohn has been accepted and documented, the pervasive influence of Handel deserves greater attention. Mendelssohn quoted Handel directly; for example, he took the subject of Handel's overture Semele for his E Minor fugue for piano. He also used Handel's choruses, with their vocally grateful melodies and transparent polyphony, as models for his own works. The intimate connection between the two composers is demonstrated by Mendelssohn's efforts to perform, edit, and publish the music of Handel.
Works: Mendelssohn: Fugue in E Minor for Piano, Op. 35, No. 1 (175), St. Paul (175). (AW)
Index classifications: 1800s
Wollenberg, Susan. "Handel and Gottlieb Muffat: A Newly-discovered Borrowing." The Musical Times 113 (May 1972): 448-49.
The fugue subject in the second movement of Handel's Organ Concerto in A major, Op. 7, No. 2, is taken from a Ricercar by Gottlieb Muffat. Handel extends Muffat's subject by continuing the sequential progression one step further. He also uses Muffat's voice order and countersubject pattern. The Muffat ricercar used by Handel is found in only one source, a manuscript collection of keyboard music copied by Padre Alexander Giessel; like Muffat, Giessel was a pupil of Fux at the Minoritenkonvent in Vienna.
Works: Handel: Organ Concerto in A major, Op. 7, no. 2.
Sources: Muffat: Ricercar. (FC)
Index classifications: 1700s
Woodard, Susan Jeanne. "The Dies Irae as used by Sergei Rachmaninoff: Some Sources, Antecedents, and Applications." D.M.A. diss., Ohio State University, 1984.
Rachmaninoff's frequent usage of the liturgical chant Dies Irae can be categorized as single appearances, textual devices, and transformations. Rachmaninoff was influenced by Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, Liszt's Totentanz, and Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death, works containing the Dies Irae which he had performed as pianist and conductor. The origins and early development of the chant and settings of the text alone are also traced, noting the important transition of its context from sacred to secular and its literary history. The following works are discussed in detail:
Works: Rachmaninoff: The Isle of the Dead, The Bells, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Piano Sonatas No. 1, Piano Sonatas No. 2, Suite No. 2 for Two Pianos, Symphony No. 2, Symphony No. 3, and several short piano pieces. (JP)
Index classifications: 1800s, 1900s
Wouters, Joseph W. "Twee Miscomposities op het Motet Virtute Magna." Tijdschrift der Vereeniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis 18 (1956-59): 111-28.
Index classifications: 1500s