Musical Borrowing
An Annotated Bibliography

Contributions by Amanda Sewell

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[+] Arewa, Olufunmilayo B. "From J. C. Bach to Hip Hop: Musical Borrowing, Copyright, and Cultural Context." North Carolina Law Review 84 (January 2006): 547-645.

Current copyright laws do not adequately support the forms of musical borrowing prevalent in hip-hop. The use of pre-existing recordings in hip-hop samples simultaneously violates the protected rights of both the existing musical composition and the recording of that musical composition. Sampling continues to be viewed as theft rather than a source of innovation within music. Aesthetic values prevalent in hip-hop, such as oral tradition, textual emphasis, repetition, polyrhythm, and borrowing, need to be situated in a broader context of musical aesthetics and, consequently, legal treatment of borrowing practices. Treating hip-hop as theft or plagiarism robs it of its rightful place within the historical context of musical borrowing in many different kinds of music. Modifications to current copyright laws, such as payment structures and differentiation of different types of sampling, are necessary to address the legality of hip-hop sampling.

Works: Irving Gordon (songwriter), Natalie Cole (performer): Unforgettable (562); Beastie Boys: Pass the Mic (570-72); N.W.A.: 100 Miles and Runnin' (574-76); Biz Markie: Alone Again (580-81); Handel: Israel in Egypt (601-603, 610).

Sources: James Newton: Choir (570-72); George Clinton (songwriter), Funkadelic (performers): Get off Your Ass and Jam (574-76); Gilbert O'Sullivan: Alone Again (Naturally) (580-81); Dionigi Erba: Magnificat (601-603, 610).

Index Classifications: General, 1700s, 1800s, 1900s, Jazz

Contributed by: Amanda Sewell

[+] Bomberger, E. Douglas. "Chadwick's Melpomene and the Anxiety of Influence." American Music 21 (Autumn 2003): 319-48.

Composers of the Second New England School sought to compose music that would satisfy conservative American audiences but also sound unique to the United States. George Chadwick's unacknowledged borrowing from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in his dramatic overture Melpomene can be analyzed in terms of Harold Bloom's The Anxiety of Influence. Chadwick engages in the first two of Bloom's categories: clinamen (a clear allusion to another work which then swerves into new territory) and tessera (the antithetical completion of another composer's work). For example, Chadwick uses a slow tempo, English horn, and the Tristan chord in the passages that open and close Melpomene, but the middle section is Allegro agitato and contains a sense of urgency not present in Tristan. In Bloom's terms, Chadwick completed what Wagner left incomplete in order to free himself of the burden of his predecessor's influence.

Works: Chadwick: Melpomene (319-23, 329-30, 333-44).

Sources: Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (320-23, 330-44).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Amanda Sewell

[+] Epstein, Dena J. "A White Origin for the Black Spiritual?: An Invalid Theory and How It Grew." American Music 1 (Summer 1983): 53-59.

The myth that the black spiritual was completely derived from white folk hymns is one of the most pervasive in the literature about black folk music. Early studies of black folk music such as Richard Wallaschek's Primitive Music (1893) and George Pullen Jackson's White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands (1933) relied solely on transcriptions, a process which does not account for performative and aural contexts of folk music. In effect, these studies mistakenly equated transcriptions with the music as it was performed and thus tacitly assumed that any deviation from the diatonic scale was due to a performer's misinterpretation of music of white origins. These analyses do not account for the process of syncretism which had to have taken place between African- and European-derived musical elements in the development of the black spiritual.

Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s, Jazz

Contributed by: Amanda Sewell

[+] Greenwald, Jeff. "Hip-Hop Drumming: The Rhyme May Define, but the Groove Makes You Move." Black Music Research Journal 22 (Autumn 2002): 259-71.

The importance of drums in hip-hop is often overlooked, but the drums establish the groove, emphasize the vocal style, and enhance the music beyond its vocal content. Ingrid Monson's discussion of repetition in African diasporic musics and Olly Wilson's concept of the heterogeneous sound ideal in African and African American musics can both be applied to the sonic role of drumming. Both sampling and drum machines play integral roles in hip-hop drumming, but the drum machine is more flexible than a sample because drum machines allow subtle changes to the beat without the necessity of a live performer. A Tribe Called Quest's Everything Is Fair, for example, mimics the delivery of Clyde Stubblefield's drum break in James Brown's Funky Drummer, but incorporates further syncopation and a pause before the downbeat emphasis.

Works: A Tribe Called Quest: Everything Is Fair (268-70).

Sources: James Brown: Funky Drummer (261-63, 268-70).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Amanda Sewell

[+] Griffiths, Dai. "Cover Versions and the Sound of Identity in Motion." In Popular Music Studies, ed. David Hesmondhalgh and Keith Negus, 51-64. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Cover versions of songs invite analysis of the effects of musical change, particularly when cover versions cross lines of gender, sexuality, race, place, class, and language. For example, Judy Collins's cover of Bob Dylan's Just Like a Woman can be read as a monologue, a lesbian version, an address to another woman, or a strict rendition of the original because Collins does not change any of the gendered pronouns from Dylan's original lyrics. Additionally, covers across race lines may either appropriate stylistic elements from the original or rewrite the cover version in a different style. International or cross-language covers often designate English as the hegemonic norm and raise questions about the use of another language as merely an exotic type of instrument. A discography of all music discussed is included.

Works: Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, and Cary Gilbert (songwriters), Thelma Houston (performer): Don't Leave Me This Way (52); Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, and Cary Gilbert (songwriters), Communards (performers): Don't Leave Me This Way (52); Bob Dylan (songwriter), Roberta Flack (performer): Just Like a Woman (52-53); Bob Dylan (songwriter), Judy Collins (performer): Just Like a Woman (53-54); John Gluck, Wally Gold, and Herb Weiner (songwriters), Bryan Ferry (performer): It's My Party (54); Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (songwriters), Elvis Presley (performer): Hound Dog (55-56); Little Richard (songwriter), Pat Boone (performer): Long Tall Sally (55-57); Hank Williams (songwriter), Ray Charles (performer): Your Cheatin' Heart (55, 57, 59-60); Paul Simon (songwriter), Simon and Garfunkel (performers): Bridge Over Troubled Water (58-59); Paul Simon (songwriter), Aretha Franklin (performer): Bridge Over Troubled Water (59).

Sources: Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, and Cary Gilbert (songwriters), Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes with Teddy Pendergrass (performers): Don't Leave Me This Way (52); Bob Dylan: Just Like a Woman (52); John Gluck, Wally Gold, and Herb Weiner (songwriters), Lesley Gore (performer): It's My Party (54); Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (songwriters), Big Mama Thornton (performer): Hound Dog (55-56); Little Richard: Long Tall Sally (55-57); Hank Williams: Your Cheatin' Heart (55, 57, 59-60); Claude Jeter (songwriter), Swan Silvertones (performers): Mary Don't You Weep (58-59).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Amanda Sewell

[+] Gunkel, David J. "Rethinking the Digital Remix: Mash-Ups and the Metaphysics of Sound Recording." Popular Music and Society 31 (October 2008): 489-510.

The popularity of the mash-up, a product of what Wired magazine has termed "cut and paste culture," can be evaluated with regard to Plato's Phaedrus. The idea of writing as a method of fixing an original performance maps onto recording technology and its practice of fixing an aural event in a recording. The mash-up manipulates a recording, undermines its originality and authority, manufactures copies from copies, and combines seemingly incompatible components. For example, Danger Mouse's Grey Album mashes the vocal track of Jay-Z's Black Album with instrumental samples from the Beatles' White Album. The mash-up also appears consistent with Theodor Adorno's assertion that most popular music is easily replicated and substitutable. Mash-ups delight in all of the elements deemed negative by Plato, such as plagiarism, inauthenticity, and repetition.

Works: Danger Mouse (Brian Burton): The Grey Album (490, 498, 502); Mark Vidler: Ray of Gob (491, 497-99).

Sources: The Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr): The White Album [The Beatles] (490, 498); Jay-Z: The Black Album (490, 498); Madonna: Ray of Light (497-99); Sex Pistols: Pretty Vacant (497-99), God Save the Queen (497-499).

Index Classifications: 2000s, Popular

Contributed by: Amanda Sewell

[+] Katz, Mark. "Music in 1s and 0s: The Art and Politics of Digital Sampling." Chapter 7 in Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music, 137-57. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004.

Digital sampling is a specific type of musical borrowing in which one recorded sound is incorporated into a new recorded sound. Sampling, unlike other types of musical borrowing, is able to manipulate the recorded sounds of specific performances. Sampling is a transformative art, rather than a practice of technological quotation. New works, such as Fatboy Slim's Praise You, which samples Camille Yarbrough's Take Yo' Praise, raise questions about creativity, originality, gender, race, and class. An accompanying CD provides recordings of several mentioned works.

Works: Eric B. and Rakim: Lyrics of Fury (137); Philip King (composer), Sinéad O'Connor (performer): I Am Stretched on Your Grave (137); Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia (songwriters), Sublime (performers): Scarlet Begonias (137); George Michael: Waiting for that Day (137); Paul Lansky: Notjustmoreidlechatter (141-145); Fatboy Slim: Praise You (145-151); Public Enemy: Fight the Power (151-156).

Sources: James Brown: Funky Drummer (137, 152, 154): Camille Yarbrough: Take Yo' Praise (145-151); Trouble Funk: Pump Me Up (151, 157).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Amanda Sewell

[+] McLeod, Kembrew. "Confessions of an Intellectual (Property): Danger Mouse, Mickey Mouse, Sonny Bono, and My Long and Winding Path as a Copyright Activist-Academic." Popular Music and Society 28 (February 2005): 79-93.

The electronic collage aesthetic, which originated with musique concrète and tape works such as John Cage's Imaginary Landscape No. 5 and Bill Buchanan and Dickie Goodman's The Flying Saucer, finds its modern incarnation in Danger Mouse's The Grey Album, a mash-up of Jay-Z's The Black Album and The Beatles' White Album. The current mash-up phenomenon is made possible by file-sharing software and readily available mixing programs. The Grey Album presents a legal quagmire because the samples were used without permission of EMI, prompting cease-and-desist letters to all those who circulated the album. Current laws only permit covers of songs, and sampling without permission is prohibited. Until copyright laws catch up with the collage aesthetic, the limited legality of fair use rights has the potential to stifle creativity and the free exchange of ideas.

Works: Danger Mouse (Brian Burton): The Grey Album (79-81); Freelance Hellraiser (Roy Kerr): A Stroke of Genie-us (82, 86-87); Soulwax: Smells Like Teen Booty (82, 84); Alan Copeland: Mission: Impossible Theme/Norwegian Wood (85); Negativland: U2 (88); Illegal Art: Sonny Bono is Dead (91), Deconstructing Beck (91).

Sources: The Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr): The White Album [The Beatles] (79-81); Jay-Z: The Black Album (79-81); Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl, and Krist Novoselic (songwriters), Nirvana (performers): Smells Like Teen Spirit (82, 84); Rob Fusair, Falonte Moore, and Beyoncé Knowles (songwriters), Destiny?s Child (performers): Bootylicious (82, 84); Eminem: Without Me (84-85); Kevin Rowland, Big Jim Paterson, and Billy Adams (songwriters), Dexy's Midnight Runners (performers): Come On Eileen (84-85); U2: I Still Haven?t Found What I?m Looking For (88).

Index Classifications: 1900s, 2000s, Popular

Contributed by: Amanda Sewell

[+] Metzer, David. "'We Boys': Childhood in the Music of Charles Ives." 19th-Century Music 21 (Summer 1997): 77-95.

The desire to return to one's childhood or the adult's recollection of a lost youth figure prominently as themes in the music and texts of Charles Ives. The composer's view of an innocent childhood fit into a larger American cultural trend in the first decades of the twentieth century as realized through nostalgic or sentimental ballads and regression fantasies acted out in literature and film of that time. By distorting borrowed melodies, Ives heightens distance between past and present, increasing the sense of nostalgia. The tune The Old Oaken Bucket is deeply embedded in Tom Sails Away, and its original lyrics also depict memories of childhood. The fragmented and sometimes cloudy quotations of The Beautiful River during the third movement of Ives's Fourth Violin Sonata suggest an impossible union between the boys and men of the hymn's lyrics. The melody of The Beautiful River materializes throughout the movement, but Ives prevents the melody from emerging in its entirety, thus suggesting the vagueness of memory and the distance between generations.

Works: Charles Ives: Tom Sails Away (81-87), Violin Sonata No. 4 (87-91).

Sources: George M. Cohan: Over There (84, 87); David T. Shaw, Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean (84, 87); Samuel Woodworth and George Kiallmark: The Old Oaken Bucket (Araby's Daughter) (84-87); Anonymous: Taps; George Ives: Fugue in B-flat Major (87); Robert Lowry: The Beautiful River (88-89).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Danielle Nelson, Amanda Sewell, Alexis Witt

[+] Metzer, David. "The Promise of the Past: Rochberg, Berio, and Stockhausen." In Quotation and Cultural Meaning in Twentieth-Century Music, 108-59. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Composers who rejected serialism used quotation in their collage works as a source of promise and new possibilities. Rochberg seeks to use the music of the past in the form of ars combinatoria in Music for the Magic Theater, thus renewing both the past and present. Berio tries to create a bond between the past, present and a utopian future in the third movement of Sinfonia. In Hymnen, Stockhausen uses the medium of electroacoustic music in order to encompass global dimensions and develop a "sonic purity." By creating links between elements where none had previously existed, each composer responds differently to the use of quotation in the quest for utopia.

Works: Berio: Sinfonia (109-13, 128-39); Rochberg: Music for the Magic Theater (110-28), Third Symphony (125-28); Stockhausen: Hymnen (110-13, 139-59).

Sources: Mozart: Adagio from Divertimento No. 15, K. 287 (121-25); Mahler: Symphony No. 9 in D Major (123-25), Symphony No. 1 in D Major (Titan) (126), Symphony No. 2 in C Minor (Resurrection) (126, 129-39); Varèse: Déserts (123); Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 130 (124-25), Missa Solemnis (126), Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 (126-28), Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 (126), Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 (126); Schütz: Saul, was verfolgst du mich (126); J. S. Bach: Chorale Prelude on Durch Adams Fall, BWV 637 (126); Ives: The Unanswered Question (126-27); Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier (136); Boulez: Don (136-38); Webern: Cantata, Op. 31 (137).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Amanda Sewell

[+] Middleton, Jason, and Roger Beebe. "The Racial Politics of Hybridity and 'Neo-Eclecticism' in Contemporary Popular Music." Popular Music 21 (May 2002): 159-72.

Producers of popular music at the turn of the twenty-first century developed hybrid music forms which combine rock music with styles and sounds of its competitors, particularly hip-hop. For example, groups such as Limp Bizkit graft the sound of record scratching and rapping into a rock band context, although record scratching is used as a sound in and of itself rather than in the service of sampling or other hip-hop musical devices. Additionally, music videos of these hybrid groups integrate visual components of both rock and rap videos. These groups assert their authenticity through textual, aural, and visual signifiers of a low socioeconomic status, which supposedly signals an allegiance with blacks.

Works: Limp Bizkit: Nookie (163, 167); Eminem: Guilty Conscience (163-64); Kid Rock: Cowboy (164-65); Dexter Holland (songwriter), The Offspring (performers): Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) (165-66).

Sources: N.W.A.: Straight Outta Compton (164-65).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Amanda Sewell

[+] Moses, Oral L. "The Nineteenth-Century Spiritual Text: A Source for Modern Gospel." In Feel the Spirit: Studies in Nineteenth-Century Afro-American Music, ed. George R. Keck and Sherrill V. Martin, 49-60. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1988.

African-American spirituals are one important textual source for contemporary gospel music. Gospel music addresses similar themes of hardship, struggle, and perseverance, all of which are prevalent in spiritual texts. At least three different twentieth-century gospel versions of the spiritual The Old Ship of Zion have been recorded by performers such as Wings Over Jordan and Modern Gospel. Although gospel performers sometimes change or omit words of a spiritual in gospel arrangements, the importance of the text and its ability to express the oral tradition of African American music remain in the foreground. An appendix lists examples of the various ways in which spiritual texts are borrowed for gospel songs, including chorus only, borrowed incipit, substitution of words, and chorus and stanza borrowed.

Works: Anonymous: Oh, Get Away, Jordan (51-52); Wings Over Jordan (performer): Old Ship of Zion (54-55); Thomas A. Dorsey: Old Ship of Zion (54-55); Modern Gospel (performers): Old Ship of Zion (54-55).

Sources: Anonymous: Oh, Give Way, Jordan (50-51); Anybody Here (52); Jacob?s Ladder (52-53); Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning (52-53); Rise and Shine (52-53); Old Ship of Zion (54-55).

Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: Amanda Sewell

[+] Sanjek, David. "'Don't Have to DJ No More': Sampling and the 'Autonomous' Creator." In The Construction of Authorship: Textual Appropriation in Law and Literature, ed. Martha Woodmansee and Peter Jaszi, 343-60. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1994.

The practice of sampling has democratized music production because instrumental dexterity is no longer required in order to produce compositions. The forms of sampling can be broken down into four general areas: sampling recognizable material that calls the listener's attention to its new context; sampling both familiar and arcane sources; a process dubbed "quilt-pop" by Chuck Eddy of the Village Voice, in which a new product is stitched together entirely from samples; and the use of samples to create alternate versions of tracks called "club mixes." Sampling falls into a gray area between the Postmodern aesthetic and the Romantic notion of the autonomous creator. The Copyright Act of 1976 fails to address questions of authorship and ownership which arise in sampling procedures and needs to be amended accordingly.

Works: Public Enemy: Yo! Bum Rush the Show (349), It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (349), Fear of a Black Planet (349); Grandmaster Flash: Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel (350); De La Soul: Transmitting Live from Mars (354); Beastie Boys: Yo Leroy (354); John Oswald: Plunderphonics (358-59).

Sources: James Brown: Funky Drummer (349); Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers (songwriters), Chic (performers): Good Times (350); John Deacon (songwriter), Queen (performers): Another One Bites the Dust (350); Deborah Harry and Chris Stein (songwriters), Blondie (performers): Rapture (350); Sugarhill Gang: 8th Wonder (350); Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five: The Birthday Party (350); Spoonie Gee: Monster Jam (350); Jim McGuinn and Gene Clark (songwriters), The Turtles (performers): You Showed Me (354); Jimmy Castor: The Return of Leroy (Part I) (354).

Index Classifications: General, 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Amanda Sewell

[+] Schloss, Joseph. "Elements of Style: Aesthetics of Hip-Hop Composition." In Making Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip-Hop, 135-68. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 2004.

Interviews with hip-hop deejays, including Mr. Supreme, Domino, Prince Paul, Samson S., and King Otto, reveal that the practice of sampling relies on the practitioner?s ability to "flip a beat," that is, to recast sound material and its meaning. The new juxtaposition of a sample, the internal characteristics of sampled materials, and the relationship between samples within the structure all contribute to the interpretive context for a new recording. Most hip-hop producers interviewed agree that the quality of manipulation is the most important, rather than the quality of the final sound product. A hip-hop producer must preserve, master, and celebrate the ambiguities inherent in sample-based hip-hop.

Works: De La Soul: Say No Go (147-48); Alicia Keys, Jermaine Dupri, and Joshua Thompson (songwriters), Alicia Keys (performer): Girlfriend (151); Guy Berryman, Jon Buckland, Will Champion, and Chris Martin (songwriters), Yesterday's New Quintet (performers): Daylight (158-59); A Tribe Called Quest: Bonita Applebum (158-59).

Sources: Darly Hall, John Oates, and Janna Allen (songwriters), Hall and Oates (performers): I Can't Go For That (147-48); Ol' Dirty Bastard: Brooklyn Zoo (151); Guy Berryman, Jon Buckland, Will Champion, and Chris Martin (songwriters), RAMP (performers): Daylight (158-59).

Index Classifications: 1900s, 2000s, Popular

Contributed by: Amanda Sewell

[+] Walser, Robert. "Rhythm, Rhyme, and Rhetoric in the Music of Public Enemy." Ethnomusicology 39 (Spring-Summer 1995): 193-217.

Arguments levied against the parasitic nature of rap music can be refuted by using Walter Ong's studies of originality in oral culture, as well as the idea of "signifyin(g)" as discussed by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Dick Hebdige. While musical performance skills are not necessary, rap producers demonstrate virtuosity in the selection and positioning of samples. Extensive analysis of the groove (199-203), rhetorical strategies (203-207), and the rhythmic character (208-212) of Public Enemy?s Fight the Power includes transcriptions of several sections of the track. The groove comprises a sample from Trouble Funk, a combination of drum patterns sampled from songs by Sly Stone, Funkadelic, and the Jacksons, and new rhythms created with a drum machine. The polyrhythmic and repetitive character of Fight the Power makes it comparable with West African musical traditions and values.

Works: Public Enemy: Fight the Power (198-207).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Amanda Sewell



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