Self-borrowing occurs for many reasons, such as creative impotence, haste, or desire to reuse an especially felicitous phrase. For Bizet, it was an effort to make use of cast-aside or unfinished materials that otherwise might not have been completed. His self-borrowings were always from unpublished works and those which had never been performed; thus, his borrowing could go undetected during his lifetime. Reworkings include reuse of an entire movement or aria, or adaptation of an older theme to a new context.

Works: Bizet: Symphony in C Major (240, 241), Vasco de gama (240), Le golfe de Bahia (240), Ivan IV (240), Te Deum (240), Don Procopio (240), Clovis et Clotilde (241), Marche funèbre (241), "Le doute" (241), "La coupe de Roi de Thulé" (242, 243), Grisélidis (243), "La jolie fille de Perth" (243), Don Rodrigue (244), L'Arlesienne (244).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Elisabeth Honn