Allusions to well-known tunes or passages may (1) deliver a concealed comment (as in a theatrical "aside") and (2) depend on the listener's knowledge of the source if the comment is to be effective or even noted. Several categories can be differentiated: incidental thematic quotation, topical thematic reference (to tunes such as the Marseillaise and to less familiar tunes), and quotation of vocal works in which the text is of significance. Commentarial quotation is distinguished from self-quotation (here with reference to Mahler, Rossini, and Beethoven) since in the latter knowledge of the source is of no significance. Commentarial quotation is a predominantly Romantic phenomenon and fits in with the desire to be exclusive and the tendency to refer to things outside the work of art.

Works: Elgar: Enigma Variations (473); Saint-Saëns: Carnival of Animals (473), Danse Macabre (474); Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture (474); Schumann: Die beiden Grenadieren (474); Weber: Jubilee Overture (474), Battle Symphony (474); Brahms: Song of Triumph (474), Academic Festival Overture (474); Mendelssohn: Reformation Symphony (474); Wagner: Kaisermarsch (474); Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique (474); Liszt: Totentanz (474), Dante Symphony (474); Mussorgsky: Songs and Dances of Death (474); Rachmaninoff: Isle of the Dead (474), Variations on a Theme by Paganini (474); Schelling: A Victory Ball (475); Wagner: Parsifal (476), Die Meistersinger (477), "Wesendonck" Songs (477), Siegfried Idyll (478); Puccini: Il Tabarro (479); Mozart: Don Giovanni (480), The Marriage of Figaro (480); Strauss: Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (481), Capriccio (482); Sterndale Bennett: Études Symphoniques, Op. 13 (483).

Sources: Mendelssohn: Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (473); Berlioz: Dance of the Sylphs (473); Rouget de Lisle: La Marseillaise (474); Arne: God Save the King (474); Luther: Ein feste Burg; Anonymous: Gaudeamus Igitur (474), Dies Irae (474); Rossini: "Una voce poco fa" from Barber of Seville (475), "Di tanti palpiti" from Tancredi (475-76); Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (477-78); Strauss: Death and Transfiguration (480); Martín: Una Cosa Rara (480); Sarti: I Due Litiganti (480); Marschner: The Templar and the Jewess (483).

Index Classifications: General, 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: David C. Birchler