Musical Borrowing
An Annotated Bibliography

Contributions by Fredrick Tarrant

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[+] Ballantine, Christopher. "Charles Ives and the Meaning of Quotation in Music." The Musical Quarterly 65 (April 1979): 167-84.

Quoted musical fragments are as deep in symbolic content as Freudian symbols of "dream-text" fragments. A distinction is made between quoted musical matter that involves words and quoted musical matter that does not. Quotations of untexted music, such as "Westminster Chimes" in Ives's Second String Quartet and the opening motive of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in Ives's Second Piano Sonata ("Concord"), evoke philosophical associations but not literary meaning. But quoting texted music, such as the songs Ives uses in his Fourth Symphony and his song West London, provides a deeper meaning if the listener knows the original words. Different structures of meaning exist for various listeners in a work that utilizes borrowed materials: (1) abstract, which concerns purely musical relationships; (2) programmatic, eliciting extra-musical associations; and (3) musico-philosophical, uniting all levels of perception and transcending both abstract musical relationships and programmatic images. Ives's Central Park in the Dark and Washington's Birthday illustrate the way in which these levels work. Although in some cases Ives may have borrowed material for structural and thematic reasons, he was still undoubtedly exploiting the connotations of this borrowed material to incorporate different levels of meaning into his music.

Works: Ives: String Quartet No. 2 (171-72), Piano Sonata No. 2: Concord, Mass., 1840-60 (172), West London (173-74), Fourth Symphony (174-76).

Sources: "Westminster Chimes" (171-72); Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor (172); "There is a fountain" (173-74); Lowell Mason: "Bethany" (174-75), "Watchman" (175); Arthur Sullivan: "Proprior Deo" (175-76).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Lee Ann Roripaugh, Fredrick Tarrant, Paula Ring Zerkle

[+] Del Mar, Norman. Richard Strauss: A Critical Commentary on His Life and Works. 3 vols. London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1962, 1969, and 1972.

Throughout this thorough examination of Strauss's life and works, musical borrowings are cited in music of every genre in which Strauss composed. There is a separate list of self quotations for Ein Heldenleben in vol. 1, p. 177.

Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: Fredrick Tarrant

[+] Gilliam, Bryan. "Strauss's Preliminary Opera Sketches: Thematic Fragments and Symphonic Continuity." 19th-Century Music 9 (Spring 1986): 176-88.

Strauss tended to compose his operas in four stages: (1) musically annotated libretto, (2) sketchbook, (3) piano-vocal score, and (4) orchestral score. Strauss kept a sketch book with him at all times, working and reworking motives into new forms. Some motives can be traced through a series of different works.

Works: R. Strauss: Sinfonia Domestica (181), Der Rosenkavalier (181), Don Quixote (182), Elektra (182).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Fredrick Tarrant

[+] Heyman, Barbara B. "Stravinsky and Ragtime." The Musical Quarterly 68 (October 1982): 543-62.

Discusses Stravinsky's incorporation of ragtime elements into Histoire du Soldat, Ragtime for Eleven Instruments, and Piano-Rag Music. Heyman presents convincing evidence that Stravinsky likely heard early jazz in Europe before 1918, contradicting Stravinsky's own statements that he had not. Stravinsky neither quoted from specific pieces nor used jazz pieces as formal models, but he used characteristic ragtime rhythms and instrumental colors of early jazz.

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Fredrick Tarrant

[+] Hosokawa, Shuhei. "Distance, Sestus, Quotation: Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny of Brecht and Weill." International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music 16 (December 1985): 181-99.

The use of quotation in the context of opera creates a significant rhetorical and syntactical relationship to the text into which it is juxtaposed. It can be used to provide ironic commentary and lend deeper levels of meaning to characters and situations. Brecht and Weill use sources from Wagner, Weber, popular jazz, and folk tunes.

Works: Weill: Aufsteig und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny.

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Fredrick Tarrant

[+] Jefferson, Alan. The Lieder of Richard Strauss. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1971.

Strauss's songs contain a variety of quotations and allusions to preexistent material. The musical borrowings are cited but are not included in separate lists.

Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: Fredrick Tarrant

[+] Kennedy, Michael. Strauss Tone Poems. London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1984.

Strauss's tone poems contain a variety of quotations from preexistent sources. There is a separate list of self-quotations in Ein Heldenleben on pp. 46-47.

Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: Fredrick Tarrant

[+] Kneif, Tibor. "Collage oder Naturalismus?: Anmerkungen zu Mahlers 'Nachtmusik I.'" Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 134 (1973): 623-28.

Mahler's innovations in instrumentation required the use of nonmusical instruments in a collage technique, characterized by sounds in free, non-metric patterns that are set against the remaining instruments. 'Nachtmusik I' of the Seventh Symphony employs a cowbell as a nonprogrammatic layer of the texture. Although this style resembles that of Ives, Mahler had no Ivesian connection. However, he undoubtedly borrowed this style from selected textures in Beethoven's Leonore Overture and Meyerbeer's Le Prophète, but he did not use direct quotations.

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Fredrick Tarrant

[+] Kraemer, Uwe. "Das Zitat bei Igor Strawinsky." Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 131 (1970): 135-41.

Lists many folk songs from which Stravinsky quotes in his music. Stravinsky claimed that he was not always conscious of the sources from which he quoted, but there is convincing evidence that his compositional process was deliberate.

Works: Stravinsky: L'Oiseau du feu (135), Petrouchka (135), Le Sacre du Printemps (136), Les Noces (138), Jeu de Cartes (138), Circus Polka (139), Greeting Prelude (139), Four Norwegian Impressions (Moods) (140).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Fredrick Tarrant

[+] Mann, William. Richard Strauss: A Critical Study of the Operas. London: Cassell, 1964.

Among Strauss's fifteen operas, there are a large number of quotations, stylistic allusions, and melodic derivatives, most of which have a programmatic intent. The musical borrowings are cited but are not included on separate lists.

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Fredrick Tarrant

[+] Marshall, Robert L. "The Paraphrase Technique of Palestrina in His Masses Based on Hymns." Journal of the American Musicological Society 16 (Fall 1963): 347-72.

Palestrina composed nine polyphonic Masses based on plainsong hymns. One is canonic, two in cantus-firmus style, and six are paraphrase Masses. It is likely that his choice of hymns was influenced by his role in the post-Tridentine chant reform, which resulted in the publication of Johannes Guidetti's Directorium chori. All the hymns used by Palestrina in paraphrase Masses are contained in this publication. He usually states the borrowed melody in even note values, freeing him from the metrical structure of the hymn text.

Works: Palestrina: Missa Te Deum (349), Missa Veni Creator Spiritus, Missa Iam Christus (354), Missa Aeterna Christi (355), Missa Jesu nostra, Missa Ad coenam (357), Missa Octavi toni, Missa Iste confessor (360), Missa Sanctorum meritis (362).

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: Fredrick Tarrant

[+] Morgan, Robert P. "Ives and Mahler: Mutual Responses at the End of an Era." 19th-Century Music 2 (July 1978): 72-81.

Despite the apparent differences in their styles, there are general similarities between Ives's music and Mahler's, such as tonal and diatonic conservatism, use of physical space in musical conception, handling of permeable form, and manipulation of borrowed material. Ives tends toward direct quotation, whereas Mahler usually recreates standard types, but their similarity lies in maintaining the recognizability of borrowed material while placing it in completely new contexts.

Works: Mahler: Symphony No. 1 (75, 78), Symphony No. 3 (75); Ives: Symphony No. 4, "Hawthorne" from Concord Sonata,The Celestial Railroad, Violin Sonata No. 4 (78-79).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Fredrick Tarrant

[+] Roman, Zoltan. "Connotative Irony in Mahler's Todtenmarsch in 'Callots Manier.'" The Musical Quarterly 59 (January 1973): 207-22.

In Mahler's First Symphony, third movement, section A is based on the tune Frère Jacques, and section B is based on "Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz," from Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. Aristotles's eironeia is a means of interpreting the ironic treatment of the borrowed material; it is characterized by distortion, understatement, and self-depreciation.

Works: Mahler: Symphony No. 1, third movement (211); Symphony No. 2, third movement (218).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Fredrick Tarrant

[+] Zimmerman, Franklin B. "Musical Borrowings in the English Baroque." The Musical Quarterly 52 (October 1966): 483-95.

Although musical borrowing has become suspect during the past 200 years, it was a commonly accepted aspect of music from the time of Quintilian through the Baroque period. Parody was the most important technique for the use of borrowed material, from both an aesthetic and an historical perspective. Purcell publicly avowed his intention to imitate Italian composers, improving upon his models in most circumstances. Purcell and his contemporaries also used English compositions as models. Handel was extremely prolific in his use of borrowed material and, like Purcell, usually improved upon his models.

Works: Pietro Reggio: Cruda Amarilli (486); Purcell: She loves and she confesses too (487); John Blow: Ah heav'n! What is't I hear (490); William Croft: Thou knowest Lord (491); Handel: "Hallelujah Chorus" from Messiah (495).

Index Classifications: 1600s, 1700s

Contributed by: Fredrick Tarrant



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