The tenor of the Latin motet Homo, mundi paleas from Wolfenbüttel 1099 is designated Et gaudebit, but the melody is actually Et florebit. Observance of this scribal error allows identification of the motet as a contrafactum of a French motet in the same manuscript, Chascun qui de bien amer.

Works: Homo, mundi paleas.

Sources: Chascun qui de bien amer.

Index Classifications: Polyphony to 1300

Contributed by: Reginald Sanders

Identification of the tenor is accompanied by a discussion of concordances and structural and textual features in the following motets: from the Wolfenbüttel 1099 manuscript, Canticum letitie,A grant joie, and He! mounier porrai je moudre?; from the Madrid manuscript, Ave gloriose plena gratie; from the Las Huelgas manuscript, Nos. 84, 94, 112, and 141 (Clama, ne cesses, Syon filia/Alleluia); and the English four-part motet, Ave miles de cuius militia/Ave miles, O Edlkude/textless quartus cantus/Ablue. Of the three chant segments, "Potentiam," "De," and "Te," which are the tenors of clausula settings in the Florence manuscript, the first and third are identified and the implications discussed. Speculation is made as to the tenor of the double motet Quomodo fiet id/O virgo virginum/O stupor omnium in modum.

Index Classifications: Polyphony to 1300

Contributed by: Reginald Sanders

While William Grant Still's Afro-American Symphony, Florence Price's Symphony in E Minor, and William Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony are examples of American musical nationalism, they also represent the culmination of the Harlem Renaissance, an affirmation of the black cultural heritage in which composers sought to elevate the Negro folk idiom to symphonic form. Still's Afro-American Symphony is based on a theme in the Blues idiom. The second theme of the first movement of Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony is based on the spiritual "Oh, M' Littl' Soul Gwine-a Shine," and the two themes of the third movement are based on the spirituals "O Le' Me Shine, Lik' a Mornin' Star" and "Hallelujah, Lord I Been Down into the Sea." In Symphony in E Minor, Price is more subtle in her use of elements from the Afro-American folk tradition: her instrumentation calls for African drums; the principal theme of the first movement and its countermelody are built upon a pentatonic scale (the most frequently used scale in Afro-American folk songs); and the third movement is based on the syncopated rhythms of the Juba, an antebellum folk dance.

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Reginald Sanders

The practice in Leipzig of interpolating Laudes into the Magnificat at Christmas extends from the early 17th through the first quarter of the 18th century. The so-called "Cantate zum Weihnachtsfest" of early 18th-century Leipzig provenance actually consists of four Laudes , whose surviving parts indicate they were available for interpolation into Magnificat settings in two keys. Because an anonymous early 18th-century Leipzig Magnificat and Bach's Magnificat in E-flat call for interpolation of four Laudes to the same text as those in the "Cantate zum Weihnachtsfest," it was perhaps customary in Leipzig at this time to interpolate Laudes to these texts into the Magnificat at Christmas.

Works: Johann Andreas Kuhnau: Cantate zum Weihnachtsfest (82-87, 92, 93); Anonymous: Magnificat à 4 in D major (87-89); Johann Sebastian Bach: Magnificat à 5 in E-flat major (89-93).

Sources: Martin Luther: Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her; Anonymous: Freut euch und jubiliert, Gloria in excelsis Deo; Paul Eber [attrib.]: Virga Jesse floruit.

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Reginald Sanders

R. Nathaniel Dett believed that African-American folk songs were well suited to development into high art forms, and that such development could inspire racial pride and personal dignity. He was particularly predisposed to the use of spirituals as the basis of choral compositions. His treatment of the source material included use of the entire song or only the smallest fragment; expansion, contraction, variation, and inversion of the melodic ideas; rhythmic diminution and augmentation; textual mutations and repetitions; and antiphonal and contrapuntal treatments.

Works: Dett: Listen to the Lambs (36-38), The Ordering of Moses (82-84, 143, 144), O Hear the Lambs A-Crying (134,135), Gently, Lord, O Gently Lead Us (136), Let Us Cheer The Weary Travler (137-139).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Reginald Sanders

Until the later sixteenth century there is insufficient evidence to support the notion put forth by scholars such as Howard Brown, Leeman Perkins, and J. Peter Burkolder that compositional procedures involving polyphonic borrowing derive from composers' conscious adoption of rhetorical ideas of imitatio. Moreover, many of the respective techniques and principles were fundamentally different. Literary imitatio had as its goal the restoration of classical rhetoric through emulation, whereas musical borrowing had no such aim. As an alternative to imitatio, one should consider the following reasons for musical borrowing in the early renaissance: (1) it was a natural outgrowth of Medieval practice; (2) it was a means of unifying a multi-sectional work; (3) as composers began to think in terms of vertical sonorities, it was natural to borrow such sonorities; (4) compositional curiosity resulted in the reuse of one's own material; (5) it was a time-saving device; (6) it was often the result of specific commissions; or (7) it intrigued the composer.

Index Classifications: 1400s, 1500s

Contributed by: J. Sterling Lambert, Reginald Sanders

The Prince of the Pagodas is based both on transcriptions that Britten made during his trip to Bali in 1956 and on "Kapi Radja," which he came to know from a recording. Unbeknownst to Britten, "Kapi Radja" was itself based on Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Reginald Sanders

The horn part of the second movement of Mozart's Horn Concerto in E-flat, K. 447, is essentially identical to that of Michael Haydn's Romance for horn and string quartet of 1795. As an alternative to Mary Rasmussen's explanation, Plath suggests that a horn player, who possessed only the horn part of the second movement of Mozart's concerto, prevailed upon Haydn to write an accompaniment.

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Reginald Sanders

Haydn's Requiem in C Minor shares numerous similarities with Mozart's Requiem, in instrumentation, choral and instrumental textures, placement of solo sections, specific features of style and technique, movement structure, tonal design and cadential progressions, and rhythmic patterns of text setting. The similarities between the works decrease significantly in those sections completed or composed by Süssmayer.

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Reginald Sanders

Although Dett never associated with the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance, he shared their belief that African-American folk music should be utilized in the development of classical compositions. Like some of the leaders of the Renaissance, Dett was ambivalent toward this folk music, particularly the spiritual, in its purer forms. Debate centered around the value of the pure folk idiom, and also around how it should be used in the development of high art. Dett's two extended choral compositions are based on spirituals. The Chariot Jubilee is based on Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, and The Ordering of Moses draws its subject, thematic material, and organizational devices from Go Down, Moses.

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Reginald Sanders

The influence of Chopin on Delius is illustrated by the appearance of a particular dominant 13th chord from Chopin's Waltz in E minor in Delius's Sea Drift. Delius's affinity for added-note harmonies may stem from the richly-spaced dominant 9th and added 6th chords of the E major trio of the same waltz. Wagner's leaping, flexible bass line from the Ride of the Valkyries nfluenced Delius's Messe des Lebens.

Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: Reginald Sanders

There are melodic similarities between Bach's Freut euch und jubiliert and the setting of the same text in an earlier motet by Calvisius. In conjunction with other evidence, this suggests that Kuhnau was not the only source for Bach's interpolations.

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Reginald Sanders