[+] 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.
Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s, Popular
Contributed by: Matthew Altizer
