Index Classifications: 1900s

Jimi Hendrix's recording of Bob Dylan's All along the Watchtower transforms Dylan's reserved and detached delivery into a dramatic and spectacular performance driven by intensification of Dylan's melodies and by a greater focus on unified structure that emphasizes the character of the ballad's narrator. Hendrix's version is the product of the peak of studio technology in its time, while Dylan's focuses on a simple capture of the singer's delivery. Both versions, and indeed both singers, are united by blues influences, although Hendrix intensifies Dylan's harmonic content and structure. Hendrix's remake is one sign of the more general affinities that he felt with Dylan over the course of their careers. Together, the two albums demonstrate much of the range of expression covered by rock artists in the late 1960s.

Works: Bob Dylan (songwriter), Jimi Hendrix (performer): All along the Watchtower.

Sources: Bob Dylan (songwriter and performer): All along the Watchtower.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Paul Killinger

Since its Broadway premiere in 1979, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd has been described by audiences, critics, and scholars as being particularly operatic compared to other works of musical theater. The work’s technical demands, use of operatic musical devices (such as leitmotives), and performances in major opera houses contribute to its perception as both an opera and a musical. Sondheim also borrows from several operas—Il barbiere di Siviglia, Pagliacci, L’elisir d’amore, and Wozzeck—and employs these allusions to characterize Sweeney Todd and his rival, Adolfo Pirelli. In Pirelli’s number “The Contest,” Sondheim parodies the famous “Largo al factotum” from Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia by adopting the aria’s virtuosic displays and patter style. Sondheim also references the traveling charlatan Doctor Dulcamara from Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. By parodying these comic works, Sondheim characterizes Pirelli as an exaggerated showoff and ultimately a fraud. Sweeney Todd on the other hand is a much more serious character, and his operatic models reflect this. Todd resembles operatic outsiders such as Britten’s Peter Grimes and Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and his shaving scene in Act 1, number 16 is similar to the shaving scene in Berg’s Wozzeck. Sondheim also quotes a passage of “Vesti la giubba” from Leoncavallo’s verismo opera Pagliacci in Todd’s number “Epiphany.” Whereas Pirelli’s number parodied its sources, Todd’s number borrows to increase its dramatic effect. Elsewhere in Sweeney Todd, Sondheim alludes to several other opera conventions and art song styles. While Sondheim’s implementation of operatic styles in Sweeney Todd often begins the discourse on opera vs. musical, the specific parodies and allusions can work to break down the distinction altogether and open up new lines of interpretation.

Works: Sondheim: Sweeney Todd (61-67)

Sources: Rossini: “Largo al factotum” from Il barbiere di Siviglia (61-63); Donizetti: L’elisir d’amore (63); Leoncavallo: “Vesti la giubba” from Pagliacci (65-67); Berg: Wozzeck (64-65)

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Matthew Van Vleet

Index Classifications: 1400s

Index Classifications: 1800s

Index Classifications: 1700s

The Confiteor in Johannes Tinctoris’s Missa L’homme armé bears a striking resemblance to the Confiteor in Antoine Busnoys’s Missa L’homme armé in sound but not in notation. Both passages contain an unusual triple-duple metric struggle, but Tinctoris’s notation “corrects” what he perceives in his theoretical writings as incorrect mensural notation used by Busnoys. To only read Tinctoris’s Missa as a theoretical exercise is to miss the complexities of Tinctoris’s work as a theorist-composer. The evidence that Tinctoris was familiar with Busnoys’s Missa L’homme armé is—unusual for a case of musical borrowing—air-tight with the exact passage from Busnoys’s Missa extensively critiqued in Tinctoris’s Proportionale musices. While Busnoys’s notation preserved the visual appearance of the L’homme armé cantus firmus on the page, Tinctoris was more concerned with correctly recording how a performance would sound. Accounts of musical borrowing in this period often look for close written correspondence, but Tinctoris borrows less tactile sonic elements from Busnoy’s Confiteor instead and apparently fixes its notational problems. There is a history to the notational practices of L’homme armé masses as well; Busnoys borrows several conventions from Ockeghem’s mass, and Obrecht borrows from Busnoys. In the L’homme armé tradition, mensural notation mattered as a way to connect to a compositional tradition, not just to preserve the sound accurately. Tinctoris receives this tradition both as a theorist and as a composer. The principle of varietas is praised by Tinctoris in his theory and executed by Tinctoris in his music. His borrowing of the Confiteor device from Busnoys can therefore be understood as Tinctoris the composer writing interesting and memorable music, not just music to prove a theoretical point. It is important to avoid reading Tinctoris’s music with modern conceptions of the relationship between notation and composition. By viewing Tinctoris and Busnoys as composers-theorists actively developing the technology of notation, we can adopt a broader perspective on the complexity of fifteenth-century music.

Works: Tinctoris: Missa L’homme armé (1-11, 18-24, 55-64); Busnoys: Missa L’homme armé (26-31, 47-54); Obrecht: Missa L’homme armé (38-42); Unattributed (possibly Obrecht): Missa de Sancto Johanne Baptista (42-47)

Sources: Busnoys: Missa L’homme armé (1-11, 18-24, 38-42, 42-47, 55-64); Du Fay: Missa L’homme armé (22-23); Johannes Regis: Missa L’homme armé (22-23); Guillaume Faugues: Missa L’homme armé (22-23); Ockeghem: Missa L’homme armé (26-31); Domarto: Missa Spiritus almus (47-54)

Index Classifications: 1400s

Contributed by: Matthew Van Vleet

Antonio Caldara’s three surviving Christmas cantatas from his years working in Rome (1709-1716) exemplify several aspects of early eighteenth-century Italian music, as well as the patronage system and political issues of the time. Caldara composed two of the cantatas—Vaticini di pace and Amarilli vezzosa—for his patron, Prince Francesco Maria Ruspoli, while Vo’ piangendo e sospirando was written for Pope Clement XI’s Christmas celebrations at the papal court. Although all of these works draw on Italian Christmas traditions such as the pastorale, their allegorical texts, characters, and dramatic action draw a direct connection between the Pope and the newborn Jesus, who will bring peace to the world. Not only did this depiction of Clement XI communicate Ruspoli’s support of the papacy, but it was also overtly political and, like many other artistic works of the time, promoted the Pope as a peacemaker in the final years of the War of Spanish Succession. Additionally, the three cantatas are connected in other ways: the plots and characters of Vaticini di pace and Vo’ piangendo e sospirando share many similarities, and Caldara also reused some of the music from Amarilli vezzosa for Vo’ piangendo. We can only speculate about the significance of the latter case, as Caldara rarely reused existing music for his new works, but it may have been a way to musically link the courts of Ruspoli and the papacy, or to further emphasize Ruspoli’s loyalty to Pope Clement.

Works: Caldara: Vo’ piangendo e sospirando (104-5, 110-17).

Sources: Caldara: Vaticini di pace (104-5, 114-17), Amarilli vezzosa (110-17).

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Matthew G. Leone

Index Classifications: 1700s

Zenck grounds her interpretation of the Scherzo from Mahler's Second Symphony on the content of the borrowed Wunderhorn song "Des Antonio von Padua Fischpredigt" and on an analysis of expressive elements. She divides the movement into four characteristic musical levels: (1) the section based on the Wunderhorn song, in which the constant reiteration of a melodic idea stands for the senseless and mechanical repetition of the same in daily life (mm. 1-189); (2) the stylized development of the previous material, standing for high art (mm. 190-211); (3) the fanfares, a code for "low music" (212-56); and (4) the "trio" representing calm and fulfillment of what the fanfares announced. The way Mahler treats these levels in the course of the movement symbolizes art (music) strongly linked with the repetitive course of the world suppressing simple music and any personal and human sphere.

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Andreas Giger

Index Classifications: 1700s, 1800s

Index Classifications: 1800s

Index Classifications: 1500s

Evidence suggests that Handel came into contact with Purcell's King Arthur during the period of his greatest struggles as a composer, and thus when he may have been particularly susceptible to borrowing. The period of Handel's heaviest borrowings from Purcell occurs during the 5 years after his return from Aix-la-Chapelle in 1737. Handel may have turned to Purcell's music for assistance in coping with two main problems: the unfamiliar English language, and an unfamiliar and intractable English public. Although there is a lack of solid evidence linking Handel's works directly to Purcell's, there are numerous similarities in melodic and motivic construction as well as in general style that cannot be ignored. An appendix of muiscal examples can be found on 28-30.

Works: Handel: Susanna (22-23), Saul (23), L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (24), Messiah (26), Alexander Balus (27), Belshazzar (26), Joshua.(27).

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Randal Tucker

Handel based the overture to his oratorio Susanna on John Blow's ode Begin the Song for St. Cecilia's Day (1684). Although Handel included most of Blow's composition, he transformed it into a typically Handelian work. In the grave section, Handel changes the subject slightly and the countersubject substantially; however, he reworks the fugal allegro completely, borrowing only the opening motive. He also modernized his model: he simplified themes, thus making them more suited to effective contrapuntal treatment, and introduced polychoral effects, concerto-grosso-techniques, and new ornaments.

Works: Handel: Acis and Galatea (20), Overture to Susanna (20-29), Agrippina (23-24), Messiah (24), Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (24).

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Andreas Giger

Although musical borrowing has become suspect during the past 200 years, it was a commonly accepted aspect of music from the time of Quintilian through the Baroque period. Parody was the most important technique for the use of borrowed material, from both an aesthetic and an historical perspective. Purcell publicly avowed his intention to imitate Italian composers, improving upon his models in most circumstances. Purcell and his contemporaries also used English compositions as models. Handel was extremely prolific in his use of borrowed material and, like Purcell, usually improved upon his models.

Works: Pietro Reggio: Cruda Amarilli (486); Purcell: She loves and she confesses too (487); John Blow: Ah heav'n! What is't I hear (490); William Croft: Thou knowest Lord (491); Handel: "Hallelujah Chorus" from Messiah (495).

Index Classifications: 1600s, 1700s

Contributed by: Fredrick Tarrant

Four types of borrowings in Handel's music can be identified: (1) overt plagiarisms; (2) re-workings of components of work other than the melody; (3) parodies; and (4) borrowings of scene, mood, atmosphere or affect re-used in a different context. When turning to Purcell for material to borrow and rework, Handel was much more subtle than with other composers, primarily utilizing the last technique. The conspicuous lack of the first three types of borrowings from English composers in Handel's output constitutes strong evidence that Handel was wary of being found out by the London public. He knew that any borrowings from English composers would likely be recognized, and especially those of Purcell.

Works: Handel: Susanna (50), L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (51), O Sing Unto the Lord (52-53), Hercules (54), Judas Maccabeus (54-55), Theodora (55), Alexander Balus (56), Alexander's Feast.(57).

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Randal Tucker

Giacomo Meyerbeer sought to study the chorales of J. S. Bach in addition to older secular French chansons. Even with his great success in grand opera, Meyerbeer turned to earlier works in order to complement the historical settings of his pieces by appropriating various types of music that would have been associated with the period. The plot of Les Huguenots concerns St. Bartholomew's night, the 1572 wedding occasion upon which ruling Catholics murdered thousands of Protestant Huguenots. Even though Meyerbeer was aware that the Huguenots might not have sung Luther's tune in their time, he believed the tune evoked religious associations that fit well with the historical plot of his grand opera. To Meyerbeer, the chorale became a symbol of revolution. His innovative use of the tune begins with a theme and shortened variations in the overture, and it functions as an incipit to represent Marcel, a Huguenot hero. The tune transforms to become an emblem of religious heroism and perseverance for the Huguenots by the end of the opera, even as the Catholics defeat them. This reflects a wholly new adaptation not only of Bach, but also of Luther.

Works: Meyerbeer: Les Huguenots (293-301).

Sources: J. S. Bach: Ein feste Burg, BWV 720 (293, 296-301); Luther: Ein feste Burg (294, 296).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Katie Lundeen

Index Classifications: 1900s

Index Classifications: 1900s

Index Classifications: 1800s

Bach's harpsichord concerto BWV 1056 has long been recognized as a borrowed work. The origins of the second movement have falsely been attributed to a number of Bach's earlier works, however. A closer match can be found between this movement and the first movement of Telemann's concerto in G Major. Manuscript evidence analyzed in context of Telemann's early concertos supports it being composed before Bach's concerto. This example is a break in Bach's normal concerto borrowings. Telemann's style of concerto writing is preserved, thereby changing Bach's style. Bach improves the contour of Telemann's melody to make it more dramatic. The technique of borrowing through transformative imitation fits the writings on musical rhetoric in the early eighteenth century. This is one of the only instances of a borrowing from concertos by his German contemporaries and shows a greater relationship between Bach and Telemann than has previously been assumed. Both works are also used in self-borrowings. Some of the material in the Telemann concerto is used in his solo for flute. Bach's harpsichord concerto movement also served as the basis for his Cantata No. 38, BWV 156. This could be a sign of Bach thinking of his concerto slow movement as an aria form.

Works: J. S. Bach: Concerto for Harpsichord in F Minor, BWV 1056 (546-51, 556-61, 571, 574, 580-84), Cantata No. 38, BWV 156 (551-53); Telemann: Solo in G Major, TWV 49: G9 (557-58).

Sources: J. S. Bach: Concerto for Violin in G Minor [lost] (546), Concerto for Harpsichord in F Minor, BWV 1056 (551); Telemann: Concerto for Flute or Oboe in G Major, TWV 51:G2 (547-51, 554-67, 580).

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Danielle Nelson

Index Classifications: 1700s

Index Classifications: 1700s

Mahler’s first symphony borrows the “Inferno Motive” and the “Cross Motive” from Liszt’s Dante Symphony, the latter of which Liszt had adapted from the incipit of the Gregorian Magnificat. The Cross motive appears not only as a melody, but is also incorporated in both pieces into the harmony and structure. In the fourth movement of Mahler’s symphony, the main tonal areas correspond with the intervals of the motive, and the motivic progression throughout the movement concludes in the Cross motive becoming “thematicized” in the diatonic key. While Liszt and Mahler used the motive for different musical purposes in their pieces, their attitudes toward reworking it were similar to the philosophies of Wilhelm Dilthey. Dilthey claimed that the past is fundamentally a point of reproduction, and that the possibilities of the future are forged out of a recognition of the past within the present; the present itself is “the moment filled with experience.” The chant tune, in Liszt’s hands, became a common, particular object, and when he transformed it in the Dante Symphony it became a general object; a similar transformation also happened when Mahler used the same chant tune. By reproducing Liszt, and thus the chant, Mahler was producing a future into which Liszt was carried.

Works: Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D Major; Liszt: Dante Symphony.

Sources: Liszt: Dante Symphony; Gregorian Chant: Magnificat.

Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: Meredith Rigby

The reason why Mozart's "Notte e giorno faticar" is quoted in Beethoven's Diabelli Variations can be found in Czerny's Memoires. Apparently Diabelli was constantly pressing Beethoven to complete this work. On one particular occasion, Diabelli visited Beethoven after he had just completed Variation 21. As a humorous comment on being harangued by Diabelli, Beethoven consequently composed Variation 22 with quotations from Mozart's "Notte e giorno faticar" and a waltz tune titled Keine Ruh bei Tag und Nacht.

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Lee Ann Roripaugh

Two types of musical Americanism can be identified: conceptual Americanism, or the active commitment to American musical culture; and compositional Americanism, which is the borrowing of native musical materials for concert music. The history of compositional Americanism begins with Anthony Philip Heinrich (1781-1861), reaching its peak during the Depression era with Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, and William Schuman, among others. Aesthetic issues and historical contexts motivating the use of American folksong in art music include the influence of Gebrauchsmusik (Chap. 4), Marxism and leftist politics among American artists (Chap. 5), the growing scholarly interest in American folksong (Chap. 6), the support of the Works Progress Administration (Chap. 7), and the rise of patriotism associated with World War II (Chap. 8). References to pieces that borrow and their specific tunes can be found throughout the book. Musical borrowings are discussed in more detail for Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock (1937), Roy Harris's Third Symphony (1939), and Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring (1943-44).

Works: Anthony Philip Heinrich: Pushmatka: A Venerable Chief of a Western Tribe of Indians (28-29), The Hickory, or Last Ideas in America (29); George Frederick Bristow: The Pioneer ("Arcadian"), Op. 49 (32): Louis Moreau Gottschalk: The Union (39), Le Banjo (39), The Last Hope (39), La Bamboula (39); Edward MacDowell: Second (Indian) Suite (59-60); Daniel Gregory Mason: String Quartet on Negro Themes (70); Henry Gilbert: Comedy Overture on Negro Themes (75, 77), Negro Rhapsody 'Shout' (77), The Dance in Place Congo (77-78); William Grant Still: La Guiblesse (97); Virgil Thomson: The Plow That Broke the Plains (100, 149, 263), The River (100, 147-48, 263), Symphony on a Hymn Tune (148, 263); Red Marching Song (125); Soup Song (125); Join the C.I.O. (141); Elie Siegmeister: Western Suite (145, 150), Eight American Folk Songs (150); Henry Cowell: Tales of Our Countryside (146); Sing Out Sweet Land! (musical) (147); Roy Harris: Folksong Symphony (147, 150), When Johnny Comes Marching Home (150), Kentucky Spring (150), March in Time of War (195), American Portrait (224); Douglas Moore: Pageant of P. T. Barnum (148), Overture on an American Tune (148); John Powell: Natchez on the Hill (148), A Set of Three (148); Aaron Copland: John Henry (149), Billy the Kid (149), Rodeo (149), Old American Songs, Sets I and II (150, 271), Lincoln Portrait (150, 191-92), Second Hurricane (264-65), El Salón México (265), Dance Symphony (265), Hear Ye! Hear Ye! (265-66), Appalachian Spring (268-70), The Tender Land (271); Jerome Moross: A Ramble on a Hobo Tune (149); Ruth Crawford Seeger: Rissolty, Rossolty (149); Morton Gould: Cowboy Rhapsody (150), American Salute (150, 188), Yankee Doodle (150), Foster Gallery (150); Ross Lee Finney: Oh Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie (150), Trail to Mexico (150); Paul Bowles: 12 American Folk Songs (150); Bernard Hermann: The Devil and Daniel Webster (film score) (150); Robert Russell Bennett: Early American Ballade (150); William Schuman: William Billings Overture (151), New England Triptych (151), Chester (151); Marc Blitzstein: The Cradle Will Rock (211-12).

Sources: God Save the King (America) (29); Yankee Doodle (29, 150); Ludwig van Beethoven: Ninth Symphony (Finale) (125) Egmont Overture (211); My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean (125); Lay the Lily Low; Home on the Range (150); I Ride an Old Paint (150); Springfield Mountain (The Pesky Sarpent) (150, 192); Patrick Gilmore: When Johnny Comes Marching Home (150, 224); Stephen Foster: Camptown Races (150, 192), My Old Kentucky Home (150); True Love, Don't Weep (195); The Capture of General Burgoyne (264-65); Aaron Copland: Grohg (265); Felix Mendelssohn: Wedding March from Midsummer Night's Dream (266); John Stafford Smith: Star-Spangled Banner (266); Simple Gifts (258-70).

Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Bergman, Felix Cox

[Chapter 3 discusses quotation, and chapters 8 and 9 include descriptions of references to it in the manuscripts: Mahler's explicit written-out reference to quoting "Das himmlische Leben" in the preliminary sketches for the Scherzo, and the citation of the Ewigkeit motive in the short score (Particell) for the third movement.]

Index Classifications: 1900s

[See pp. 89-90 for references to quotation in this movement. The discussion includes mention of some of Mahler's written comments in the draft score.]

Index Classifications: 1900s

Index Classifications: 1500s