Musical Borrowing and Reworking
J. Peter Burkholder, Project Director
The old turned in something new
The reuse of some elements from an existing work of art, either a poem or a picture or a piece of music, to create a new one is an old and common practice. By doing this the author creates an interconnection, more or less evident, that engages with the memory of the reader, or the audience, producing a new level of meaning.
The study of this practice has produced a large quantity of publications, and the aim of this project is to offer a comprehensive searchable annotated bibliography, a powerful tool to explore the scholarship on the subject. Started in the 1980s by J. Peter Burkholder, the bibliography includes around 2,000 entries.