America’s first important woman composer, Amy Beach, composed one of the first American piano concertos, Piano Concerto in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 45 (1899). In this work, Beach borrows themes from three of her own vocal works. Jeune fille et jeune fleur, Op. 1, No. 3, is used as the secondary theme of the first movement. The main theme of the second movement originates from Empress of Night, Op. 2, No. 3. Twilight, Op. 2, No. 1, is used as the main inspiration of the third movement of the piano concerto, which is through-composed, as well as the third theme in the fourth movement. Beach incorporates these melodies into several standardized forms found in the piano concerto, including sonata-allegro and rondo forms, while including the harmonic rhetoric characteristic of the turn of the twentieth century. In addition, Beach develops the work by transforming four motives derived from the opening of the piano concerto, which are subsequently found in every movement. Characteristics of the motives also can be combined, creating new distinctive transformations.

Works: Amy Beach: Piano Concerto in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 45.

Sources: Amy Beach: Jeune fille et jeune fleur, Op. 1, No. 3 (46-48), Empress of Night, Op. 2, No. 3 (54-59), Twilight, Op. 2, No. 1 (62-65, 73-74, 107-8, 111).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Devin Chaloux

Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s Op. 94 for Viola and Orchestra exists in two versions: the original “Potpourri” composed in 1820 and published in 1822, and a heavily abridged “Fantasy” not prepared by Hummel and first published in 1899 or 1900. Hummel’s Potpourri is organized into six distinct sections (with interspersed transitions) that each present a single borrowed melody. The material is drawn from four operas, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Rossini’s Tancredi, as well as from an unidentified source labeled by Hummel as Boleros. Hummel employs several methods of borrowing throughout the Potpourri: modeling and paraphrase (in the case of Don Giovanni and the first Entführung section), variations (Figaro and Tancredi), and cantus firmus (second Entführung section). The Fantasia on the other hand cuts all but one of the episodes of borrowed material, leaving only the Don Giovanni section and Hummel’s introduction, transition material, and finale. The choice of whether to perform the Potpourri or the Fantasy is related to philosophical debates over Werktreue, faithfulness to score, and improvisation. While the provenance of the Op. 94 Fantasy is unresolved, one hypothesis is that its significant cuts and new title were made as an attempt to distance the work from the negative associations of the potpourri genre in the late nineteenth century. While the Op. 94 Fantasy is significantly shorter and still creates an exciting effect, modern performers should not shy away from the original Potpourri, which has value as a serious work.

Works: Johann Nepomuk Hummel: Potpourri for Viola and Orchestra, Op. 94 (89-95, 106-11); Hummel (composer), Anonymous (arranger): Fantasia for Viola and Orchestra, Op. 94 (89-92, 111-12)

Sources: Johann Nepomuk Hummel: Potpourri for Viola and Orchestra, Op. 94 (89-92, 111-12); Mozart: Don Giovanni (89-92, 106-7), Le Nozze di Figaro (89, 92-93, 107), Entführung aus dem Serail (89, 94-95, 107-9); Rossini: Tancredi (90, 95, 109)

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Matthew Van Vleet

Paganini's Caprice, Op. 1, No. 24, has inspired numerous variations, and the popularity of Paganini's theme as the basis of variations should not merely be seen as a competitive effort among composers, but a tribute to the quality of the original theme. In particular, this can be seen through composers' varied approaches to texture, rhythm, meter, modulation, and harmony.

Works: Lutosławski: Variations on a Theme of Paganini (15-16, 32, 35-38, 70, 80); Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 43 (17-18, 31, 33,39-48, 70, 77, 83); Boris Blacher: Orchestervariationen über ein Thema von N. Paganini (20, 32-33, 48-51, 53, 74-75, 77-78, 80); Nathan Milstein: Paganiniana (21, 30, 33, 52-55, 65, 83); Eugène Ysaÿe: Paganini Variations, Op. post. (23, 32-33, 59-62, 70-71, 77, 84); David Baker: Ethnic Variations on a Theme of Paganini (23-25, 59, 64-65, 77, 80, 82); Bronslaw Przybylski: Variazioni sopra un tema di Paganini (25, 31, 33, 59, 62-63, 74-75, 77, 80-82); Gregor Piatigorsky: Variations on a Paganini Theme (26, 32-33, 56-57, 65, 70-72, 77, 83); Hans Bottermund: Variations on a Theme of Paganini (27, 30, 56, 58-59, 74, 85); Bryan Hesford: Variation on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 68 (28, 30, 32, 65, 67-68, 72-73, 77); Kenneth Wilson: Variations on a Theme of Paganini for Four B flat Clarinets (28-29, 33, 35, 65-67, 72-73, 85); Keith Cole: Excursions: Variations on a Theme of Paganini (29, 32, 33, 65-66, 74, 77).

Sources: 24 Caprices, Op. 1 (1, 12-13, 30-31, 33, 39-40, 43-49, 56-57, 59, 63, 65, 70, 77, 80, 83, 85); Sequence Dies Irae (39-40, 43, 46-48).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Virginia Whealton

One main reason for the Dies Irae sequence's acquired fame as a leitmotif of death is its "catchy" and easily recognizable melody. Brief discussions of works using the chant note the setting and models. The polyphonic treatment illustrated by Asola and Pitoni's Requiems is traced in Liszt's Totentanz. The dance-like rhythmic treatment in Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique is applied by Saint-Saëns in his Danse Macabre. Tchaikovsky, the first Russian composer to use the Dies Irae, uses a contrapuntal device, applied before in Totentanz and later in Rachmaninoff's Toteninsel. Other works mentioned are Glazunov's Moyen Age, Miaskovsky's Sixth Symphony, Schelling's Impressions from an Artist's Life, Loeffler's Ode for One Who Fell in Battle, and Simond's unpublished Elaboration for organ.

Works: Asola: Requiem (6); Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique (6); Glazunov: Moyen Age, Op. 79 (6); Liszt: Totentanz (6); Loeffler: Ode for One Who Fell in Battle (39); Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 6 (6); Pitoni: Requiem (6); Rachmaninoff: Toteninsel (6); Saint-Saëns: Danse Macabre (6); Schelling: Impressions from an Artist's Life (39); Simonds: Elaboration of Dies Irae for Organ (unpublished) (39); Tchaikovsky Modern Greek Song, Op. 16, No. 6 (In Dark Hell).

Index Classifications: 1500s, 1700s, 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: Jean Pang

This article explores the dynamics of unconscious quotation. The main theme of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto is based upon a chant of the Russian Orthodox church. Rachmaninoff probably heard the chant during a visit to the Kievan-Petchersk Lavra in 1893. The concerto was composed in 1909. Thus it took some sixteen years for the tune to be unconsciously regenerated as the theme for his concerto. Of special interest is Rachmaninoff's reply to a letter sent to him by Yasser which demonstrates that Rachmaninoff was not conscious of the relationship between his theme and the chant. Rachmaninoff did, however, acknowledge the influence of liturgical and folk music on his music.

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: David C. Birchler

Harold Farberman's production of The Celestial Country permits objective comparisons between Ives and Horatio Parker. The adversarial relationship between them has probably been exaggerated. In this work, Ives emulated and borrowed from his teacher's oratorio, Hora novissima, in part because Parker was a paragon of musical success. Ascribing realistic motivations to Ives enlarges the stature of his later achievements, rather than diminishing them. At the same time it helps to restore the damaged reputation of Parker.

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Daniel Bertram

Schubert's Wiegenlied in A-flat major, D. 498, set to an anonymous poem, became the musical material for borrowing in two twentieth-century operas: "Töne, töne, süsse Stimme" in Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, op. 60, and "Gently, little boat, across the ocean float" in Igor Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. Both Strauss and Stravinsky quoted the first measure of Schubert's lullaby. The quotation can be seen as a "double reminiscence": three lullabies and two mythological operas. The borrowings include musical, poetic, and dramatic elements. The anonymous poem of Schubert's Wiegenlied implies that the child is perhaps dead, but his mother's love remains with him and protects him even after death; and he will receive a rose when he "wakes." This theme has close association with the texts of Strauss's and Stravinsky's lullabies, as both deal with death, transformation, immortality and the love of a woman who embodies utmost fidelity. Strauss not only borrowed the melody from Schubert, he also borrowed the Schubertian harmonic style. Stravinsky's borrowing is more remote. Neither Strauss nor Stravinsky ever mentioned these borrowings.

Works: Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos, "Töne, töne, süsse Stimme" (35-41); Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress, "Gently, little boat, across the ocean float" (41-47).

Sources: Schubert: Wiegenlied in A-flat Major, D. 498 (35-47).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Tong Cheng Blackburn

Mahler's first song-cycle shows strong connections with Schubert's last, notably in the texts. Mahler composed three of the four texts himself, and apparently emulated Müller directly, more so than simply picking up on general tendencies in German romantic lyric poetry. In approaching the composition of his texts, and these early songs, Mahler exhibited a latent historicism, which he may have been reluctant to admit in order to avoid comparisons to the past.

Works: Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen.

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: John Andrew Johnson

An appendix of 21 works based on B-A-C-H.

Works: Albrechtsberger: Fugue for Organ; J. C. Bach: Fugue für das Pianoforte oder die Orgel komponiert von Christian Bach uber die Buchstaben seines Namens; J. S. Bach: Contrapunctus XI and XIX from Die Kunst der Fuge; Fantasy and Fugue (formerly attributed to J. S. Bach [??]); Berblan: Chaconne on Bach, Op. 10; Beethoven: Sketches for an Overture on BACH; Bellermann: Prelude and Fugue on BACH for Organ, Op. 8; Bräutigam: Johann Sebastian Bach; Casella: Two Ricercari on the Name BACH, Op. 46; Eisler: Prelude and Fugue on BACH (study on a twelve-tone row), Op. 46; D'Indy: "Beuron," No. 11 from Tableaux de voyage, Op. 33; Karg-Elert: "Basso Ostinato" from Madrigale, 10 schlichte Weisen, Passacaglia and Fugue on BACH, Op. 150; Krebs: Fugue on BACH for Organ; Liszt: Phantasy and Fugue on BACH for Organ; Pepping: Three Fugues on BACH for Piano; Reger: Phantasy and Fugue for Organ on BACH, Op. 46; Rimsky-Korsakov: Fugue, Op. 17, No. 6; Schumann: Six Fugues on the Name BACH for Organ or Piano with Pedal; Sorge: Three Fugues; Wellesz: Partita in honorem J.S. Bach 1965.

Index Classifications: 1700s, 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: Jean Pang

Erasure and void were significant parts of the developing Israeli musical culture of the mid-twentieth century, as exemplified by a case study of German-born Israeli composer Hanoch Jacoby’s Mutatio (1975). Erasure is central to the piece as an expression of Jacoby’s personal experience and through his appropriation of traditional ethnic musical materials. Ideologies of negation were common in Zionist thought and Israeli music, particularly regarding Orientalism in Zionist and Israeli contexts. In Israeli music, the East functions as the Other, but also as an ancient Self, complicating the merging of Eastern materials and Western styles at the heart of the new, “Mediterranean” style of Israeli art music in the 1950s. Jacoby was born in Königsberg and studied composition under Paul Hindemith, with whom he maintained a correspondence through his emigration to Jerusalem in 1933. Mutatio, composed late in his career, was an attempt to reconcile his role as an Israeli composer with the missing German part of his identity and musical upbringing. The structure, orchestration, and texture of Mutatio suggest that it was modeled after the first movement of Hindemith’s Symphony Mathis der Maler. Hindemith’s movement is built around a German chorale, which serves as the introduction and coda and is set polyphonically at the climax of the movement. Mutatio follows this scheme almost exactly. By using Hindemith as a model, Jacoby highlights the difference in their exile experience: Hindemith maintained his German identity and could turn to the German musical tradition while Jacoby could not. Jacoby further engages with issues of Orientalism and secularization by borrowing two versions of the piyyut Hon ta’hon sourced from transcriptions prepared by Hail Alexander. Alexander’s transcriptions were based on specific performances of the two versions of Hon ta’hon, and they were created for the purpose of providing composers with material for practical arrangements. By using the Hon ta’hon melodies as Oriental folk material, borrowed and developed in a Western manner, Jacoby implies that Western, Judeo-Christian history has its roots in the East, that is to say, in Israel.

Works: Hanoch Jacoby: Mutatio (158-60, 169-72); Paul Hindemith: Mathis der Maler (159)

Sources: Paul Hindemith: Symphony Mathis der Maler (158-59, 169-72); Anonymous: Es sungen drei Engel (159); Haim Alexander (transcriber), Baruch Abdalla Ezra (performer): Hon ta’hon, Baghdad version (162, 166-69, 169-72); Haim Alexander (transcriber), Ezra Mordechai (performer): Hon ta’hon, Kurdistan version (163-64, 166-69, 169-72)

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Matthew Van Vleet

The German “medieval rock” band Corvus Corax reinterprets texts and music of the Middle Ages as a means of avoiding the problematic connotations of folk (Volk) stemming from Nazi associations. Corvus Corax was formed in the late 1980s at the tail end of Germany’s Ougenweide scene, roughly parallel to English and American folk rock. Despite Ougenweide music’s popularity with student protest movements, the genre still struggled to distance itself from associations with Nazi Volksmusik. Like many Ougenweide groups, Corvus Corax initially drew from Middle High German texts as a further removed folk source Eventually, the band adopted its signature sound and look, blending aesthetics of medieval dance music, heavy metal, punk, and goth. In describing their aesthetic, band members often invoke the idea of the minstrel as the keeper of an oral music tradition. In creating their medieval rock, Corvus Corax borrows from a wide range of medieval to ancient melodies, including a Macedonian Oro, Ottoman song, ancient Chinese emperor hymn, and the Epitaph of Seikilos. Their 2006 “opera” Cantus Buranus is drawn from the same text source as Orff’s Carmina Burana, but strives to cast off the fascist associations by emphasizing the community of vagrants suggested in the text. Corvus Corax uses a universal and cosmopolitan framing of medieval German history as a political statement of inclusion and anti-nationalism.

Works: Corvus Corax: Viator (375), Tritonus (375), Seikilos (375)

Sources: Traditional (Macedonian): Skudrinka (375); Traditional (Ottoman): Neva Cengi Harbi (375); Traditional (Greek): Epitaph of Seikilos (375); Traditional (Chinese): Chou chou sheng (375)

Index Classifications: 1900s, 2000s, Popular

Contributed by: Matthew Van Vleet

Tan Dun’s Symphony 1997: Heaven, Earth, Man, which was composed to celebrate Hong Kong’s reunification with China, makes use of extensive self-borrowing, fitting the traditional Chinese practice of using the same work for various settings. The composer here assumes a dual role as creator and culture carrier. Tan’s incorporation of the suicidal duet from the opera Princess Cheungping in the sixth movement harbors a political tone, as the opera symbolizes a city’s downfall. Furthermore, the duet titled Xiang Yao (the death of the princess) abbreviates Xiang Gang Yao Wang (the death of Hong Kong), which is ironic for a symphony intended to celebrate Hong Kong. In the seventh to tenth movements, Tan borrows from his own previous works to create a collage. The next two movements are borrowed from Tan’s own movie soundtrack for the film Don’t Cry, Nanking, detailing the Nanjing Massacre and contributing an overall depressing tone to the handover celebration. The presence of the gigantic Zeng Hou Yi bells is crucial in the understanding of the music. The Zeng Hou Yi bell-chimes are symbols of a local lord subverting the hierarchy of the ritual system, thereby harboring defiant political undertones. The use of the Zeng Hou Yi bell-chimes in this composition further contributes to a revival of ancient ritual objects and can be interpreted as a subversive act in this reunification context. This accounts for why only the first two movements of the symphony were performed in the variety show televised to the public in commemoration of the reunification.

Works: Tan Dun: Symphony 1997: Heaven, Earth, Man (57-71).

Sources: Anonymous: Mo Li Hua (58); Puccini: Turandot (58); Richard Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra (58); Anonymous: Princess Cheungping (58-59), Xiang Gang Yao Wang (59); Tan Dun: Soundtrack to Don’t Cry, Nanking (60), Marco Polo (61); Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 (61).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Jingyi Zhang

Beethoven's String Quartet in A major Op. 18, No. 5 is clearly indebted to Mozart's String Quartet K. 464 in the same tonality, and Mozart's quartet was an homage to Haydn. The parallels between the two later works are examined using Harold Bloom's theory of the anxiety of influence. Beethoven's imitation can be explained as a desire to learn from Mozart, as motivated by feelings of rivalry, and also as an act of homage to him. The differences between some sections can be seen as an attempt to "misinterpret" the original in order to surpass it. In the String Quartet in A minor Op. 132, which is a much later re-use of Mozart's music, Beethoven achieves the effect of complete sublimation of the precursor, capturing its essence so completely that it seems that the latecomer is being imitated by his ancestor.

Works: Beethoven: String Quartet in A Major, Op. 18, No. 5 (30-71); String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132 (71-72).

Sources: Mozart, String Quartet in A Major, K. 464.

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Luiz Fernando Lopes