The many instances of self-borrowing in Franz Schubert's last completed opera Fierrabras (1823) may be seen as the composer's fervent effort to select the best melody from his repertoire to fit the dramatic situation. For instance, in the first act alone, the overture resembles an earlier song Himmelsfunken, a recurring motive in the opera echoes a similar motive used in the unfinished cantata Lazarus, and many passages resemble passages from Rosamunde and the song cycle Die schöne Müllerin, which were both written around the same time as the opera. Many of these passages are not direct quotations, but rather allusions or slight resemblances to earlier works. Additionally, these cross-references often serve a poetic purpose. For example, the melodic allusion to Blumenlied and Die Forelle in Act I of Fierrabras is an appropriate reference because of the innocence evoked in all three passages. The various quotations, cross-references, and allusions are indicated within a detailed discussion of the musical material of each number.

Works: Schubert: Fierrabras (17-37).

Sources: Schubert: Himmelsfunken (19-20), Lazarus (cantata) (21, 26, 35), Rosamunde (21, 35), Die schöne Müllerin (21-22, 27-28, 35-36), Die Forelle (22, 27), Blumenlied (22, 27), Die abgeblühte Linde (23-24), Abendröthe (24-26, 28), Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat Major, D. 898 (26-27), Symphony No. 9 in C Major (Great) (26-27, 29, 35-36), Piano Sonata in A Minor, D. 784 (30-31), Sonata for Piano Duet in B-flat Major, D. 617 (32-33), Three Piano Pieces, D. 946 (32-33, 35), Ins stille Land (33-34), Lied der Mignon, D. 877 (33-34), Sonata in A Minor for Arpeggione and Piano, D. 821 (33-34), Totengräbers Heimweh (33, 35).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Mark Chilla

After 1840, the music of Robert Schumann shifted in focus from idiosyncratic piano music toward more traditional instrumental works, reflecting the influence of the composer's past. One movement in particular, the finale of his Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, draws upon more traditional sonata-form techniques and reworks them in unique ways, all while alluding to and subverting earlier works by Schubert, Beethoven, and Schumann himself. For instance, the self-contained arabesque that interrupts the recapitulation is similar to a technique used in Schumann's Piano Fantasy, Op. 17: they both show Schumann challenging (and perhaps usurping) earlier Beethovenian models of sonata form by inserting a discontinuous character piece. Additionally, this unique take on sonata form in the finale recalls the "parallel forms" present in some of Schumann's 1830s piano sonatas, as well as in some earlier models by Schubert including first movement of the Impromptu in F Minor and the finale of the Piano Trio in B-flat major. The subject of Schumann's fugato also seems to draw upon a similar fugal melody from Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata. Finally, there is a musical allusion to the fifth movement of Schumann's own Novelletten, which is particularly meaningful because both works are closely tied to Schumann's relationship with his wife Clara. These reflections of the past taken together are seen as Schumann's way, not of battling with his predecessors, but rather of working with them to create his own unique style.

Works: Robert Schumann: Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47 (516-60), String Quartet in A Major, Op. 41 (534), Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 44 (534).

Sources: Robert Schumann: Fantasie, Op. 17 (519-25, 533, 543-45), Piano Sonata in G Minor, Op. 22 (533-34), Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 14 (533-34), Piano Sonata in F-sharp Minor, Op. 11 (533-34), Novelletten, Op. 21 (545-60); Schubert: Impromptu in F Minor, D. 935 (534-43), Piano Trio in B-flat Major, D. 898 (534-43); Beethoven: Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 106 (Hammerklavier) (543).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Mark Chilla

Franz Schubert's Piano Fantasy in C Major, Op. 15 (1822) was given the nickname "Wanderer" because of an apparent borrowing of his famous earlier song Der Wanderer (1816); however, the musical support for this borrowing has never been evaluated. There exists no written evidence of the Fantasy having any connection to the song during Schubert's lifetime, or even almost fifty years after his death. It was not until 1873 that the first published record of the borrowing can be found. The moniker stuck because at this time, the whole work was viewed as a cyclic development of the second movement Adagio theme, which itself had motivic similarities to the song. However, the character of the Adagio theme and the song theme differ slightly, and the C-sharp minor tonality of both melodies may be seen as a result of Schubert's fondness for semitonal key relationships rather than a deliberate quotation. Judging the borrowing as accidental rather than intentional then calls into question analyses that incorporate the song's mood into a discussion of the Fantasy.

Works: Schubert: Fantasy in C major, Op. 15, D. 760 (Wanderer) (540-42).

Sources: Schubert: Der Wanderer, D. 493 (540-42).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Mark Chilla

Franz Liszt's 1859 variations on the theme from J. S. Bach's cantata Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12 effectively transforms Bach's structurally and tonally restrictive passacaglia theme into a large-scale, goal-oriented work. The theme is short and harmonically closed and thus has the potential to be repetitive and static. To create forward momentum, Liszt incorporates the suspensions of the theme into many of the variations and dovetails many phrases, a technique used by Bach, to drive the piece forward and conceal the regularity of the repeating passacaglia theme. Additionally, he creates large-scale form and goal direction by ending the set of variations with a statement of the chorale from Bach's cantata, providing a focal point for the developmental process. Liszt turns the genre of the Baroque passacaglia into a more Romantic theme and variations genre by incorporating a more pianistic texture, chromatic harmony, and freer use of the theme as the variations progress. While this work is four times longer than Bach's set of variations in the cantata, the overall structure of the new work reflects the narrative of the original, which can be construed as Lizst's method of paying homage to Bach.

Works: Franz Liszt: Variations on a Theme from "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen," S. 180 (37-49).

Sources: J. S. Bach: Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12 (37-49).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Mark Chilla

Due to his formal musical training and informal musical upbringing, Billy Joel was equally adept at incorporating both classical and popular styles in his songs depending on the expressive context of the lyrics. Many of his songs deliberately quote popular tunes, while others are either modeled after specific songs, especially by the Beatles, or are modeled after the general style of different popular artists (as shown in the appendix). Likewise, Joel was known to quote classical works in some of his songs, and many other songs exhibit a harmonic or contrapuntal language reminiscent either of classical style in general or of specific classical composers, especially Chopin. These learned and vernacular styles are exemplified particularly in two songs, James (1976) for the learned style and Laura (1983) for the vernacular style, and the personae of these two titular characters reflect the expressive correlations of their particular musical styles.

Works: Billy Joel: Storm Front (106), Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel) (106), Modern Woman (106), All You Wanna Do Is Dance (106), C'etait toi (You Were the One) (106), Laura (106, 122-24), The Great Suburban Showdown (106), Uptown Girl (106), Captain Jack (107), Scandinavian Skies (107), A Room of Our Own (107), Just the Way You Are (107), Attila (album) (107), Why Judy Why (107), If I Only Had the Words (To Tell You) (107), 52nd Street (album) (107), This Night (110), Leningrad (110), Souvenir (110), The Ballad of Billy the Kid (111), She's Got a Way (111), James (119-22).

Sources: Harold Arlen: Stormy Weather (106); Duke Ellington: Mood Indigo (106); Ethelbert Nevin: Mighty Lak' a Rose (106); John Lennon and Paul McCartney (songwriters), The Beatles (performers): Rubber Soul (album) (106), Here, There, and Everywhere (106), Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (107), I Am the Walrus (107), Glass Onion (107), I Will (107), Birthday (107), Her Majesty (107); George Harrison (songwriter), The Beatles (performers): Something (107); Beethoven: Piano Sonata in C Minor, Op. 13 (Pathétique) (110); Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54 (110); Chopin: Prelude in D-flat Major, Op. 28, No. 15 (110), Prelude in E Minor, Op. 28, No. 4 (111-12); Copland: Appalachian Spring (111).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Mark Chilla

ORCH5, a digital sample of a single chord from Igor Stravinksy's Firebird created on the Fairlight Computer Musical Instrument, became one of the first recognized samples used in popular music. It was used as a sample in some eclectic electronic music in the early 1980s, but gained fame as the orchestral sound that began Afrika Bambaataa's seminal 1982 song Planet Rock. This song also prominently samples music from the German electronic group Kraftwerk, including a chromatic Weltschmerz theme from their song Trans Europe Express. Taken together, these two samples--a digital orchestral sound and a melody with intentional commentary on the decay of German music--create some unintended resonances of the decline of classical music in the Western world. While the use of ORCH5 in Planet Rock signals the decay of classical music in popular culture, the sample is also given new life by being appropriated into both the Afro-futurist movement and especially the early stages of hip-hop sampling, where it is used in the same capacity as a DJ's vinyl scratch.

Works: Kate Bush: The Dreaming (343); The Art of Noise: Close (to the Edit) (343); Afrika Bambaataa &the Soulsonic Force with Arthur Baker and John Robie: Planet Rock (343-54).

Sources: Stravinsky: The Firebird (341-54); Kraftwerk: Trans Europe Express (344-54), Numbers (344-54).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Mark Chilla

While Franz Schubert's Piano Sonata in C Minor, D. 958 (1828) clearly quotes the theme from Beethoven's Variations in C Minor, WoO 80, Schubert inserts music that disrupts the momentum in a very un-Beethovenian manner. These disruptive passages seem to suggest a musical memory, recalling numerous earlier works by Schubert including several allusions to songs from his song cycle Winterreise. The theme of death in the songs might be one reason for the allusion to Beethoven, who had died the previous year. Ghostly echoes of Winterreise themes from "Erstarrung" and "Der Lindenbaum" might suggest the ghost of Beethoven haunting Schubert. Yet the theme of exile in Winterreise resonates more with Schubert's personal life at the time he wrote this sonata. The chromatically distant B section, which echoes many previous works of Schubert including his Moment Musical in A-flat, supports this reading by equating harmonic distance and emotional or physical exile.

Works: Schubert: Piano Sonata in C Minor, D. 958 (635-53).

Sources: Beethoven: Variations in C Minor, WoO 80 (635-36), Piano Sonata in C Minor, Op. 13 (Pathétique) (641-42); Schubert: Winterreise (639-43, 647, 652), Moment Musical No. 2 in A-flat Major, D. 780 (645-46).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Mark Chilla

The structure of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, Op. 120, as a whole might be considered a macrocosm of the structure of the waltz theme by Anton Diabelli. Many previous composers have ended their variation sets with a return to the opening theme; the thirty-third and final variation, a minuet, can be thought of as Beethoven's transformation of this theme to a higher sphere, acting as a crowning epilogue or coda. This leaves thirty-two variations, corresponding to the thirty-two measures of the theme. The waltz theme is symmetrically organized into eight four-measure groups. Likewise, the thirty-two variations can be described as a set of eight groups of four successive variations, related by sequences of tempi, meter, texture, and character.

Works: Beethoven: Diabelli Variations, Op. 120 (496-503).

Sources: Anton Diabelli: Waltz (498-503).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Mark Chilla

Gioachino Rossini gained fame and developed his compositional style during his Neapolitan years (1815-1822), yet many of these works were once thought to be lost. The discovery of the manuscripts of several non-operatic Neapolitan works (the cantata Le Nozze di Teti e di Peleo, four other cantatas, and the Messa di Gloria) reveals much about Rossini's compositional style. All of these works, especially Le Nozze di Teti e di Peleo, contain a significant amount of self-borrowed material, most likely because they were made hastily for specific occasions. The self-borrowing comes in several types: setting a melody to a new voice part, borrowing from two separate sources, keeping the same medium (such as deriving a chorus from another chorus), changing the medium (such as deriving a trio from a chorus), modeling on an earlier composition, and paraphrasing an earlier melody into a new melody.

Works: Rossini: Le Nozze di Teti e di Peleo (317-25), Cantata for One Voice and Chorus, Omaggio umiliato a Sua Maestà (317-318, 325-327, 331), Cantata for Three Voices and Chorus (317, 328-330), Messa di Gloria (318, 331-39).

Sources: Rossini: Sigismondo (321), Ciro in Babilonia (321), L'Equivoco stravagante (321), Tenor concerto aria (321), Il Barbiere di Siviglia (321-25, 331), Torvaldo e Dorliska (321-22), Aureliano in Palmira (321), Il Turco in Italia (321), La Scale di Seta (321-22), Demetrio e Polibio (323), Cantata for One Voice and Chorus (330), Matilde di Shabran (331), Mosè in Egitto (336); Haydn: Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser (329).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Mark Chilla

Textual and musical ambiguity in Charles Ives's four war songs, In Flanders Fields, Tom Sails Away, He Is There!, and They Are There!, may reflect Ives's own ambiguous attitude towards war. In the first three songs, written in 1917, Ives quotes several patriotic, martial, and popular tunes, but these quotations do not always retain their original meaning. Ives uses patchwork technique or other means of quotation to include melodic fragments from unambiguously patriotic songs; however, he often combines these fragments with a morose character, complex harmonies, and inconclusive cadences. Collectively, these three songs reflect Ives's ambivalence towards World War I. Twenty-five years later, They Are There!, a World War II revision of the earlier He Is There!, moves from ambivalence to a direct expression of Ives's anti-war sentiments. In conjunction with contemporary biographical evidence and Ives's own biting recording of the song, They Are There! demonstrates a shift in Ives's personal stance towards war and brings into question the possibility of parody in his three earlier war songs.

Works: Charles Ives: In Flanders Fields (72-80), Tom Sails Away (80-84), He Is There! (84-87), They Are There! (91-97).

Sources: Taps (75, 77-78, 81-82); David T. Shaw: The Red, White, and Blue (Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean) (75-76, 78-79, 82, 86); George F. Root: The Battle Cry of Freedom (76-77, 86); Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle: La Marseillaise (76, 78, 86); America (God Save the King) (77-79); Reveille (78, 86); Henry S. Cutler: All Saints New (78); Samuel Woodworth and George Kiallmark: Araby's Daughter (The Old Oaken Bucket) (81); George M. Cohan: Over There (82, 86); Ives: Country Band March (86), He Is There! (91-97); Walter Kittredge: Tenting on the Old Camp Ground (86-87).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Mark Chilla, Laura B. Dallman, Paul Killinger

Due to its rushed composition for the premiere performance, the musical material of Felix Mendelssohn's Serenade and Allegro Giojoso, Op. 43 (1838) is based largely on his Piano Concerto No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 40, composed the previous year. Many of the similarities between the works are evident: they share the same ensemble, key area, and some thematic material. Further evidence for the self-borrowing can be found in Mendelssohn's sketches. In the Nachlaß 19 manuscript, a passage originally intended for the Piano Concerto was reused as a transition between the movements of the Serenade and Allegro Giojoso in an early performance. The Nachlaß 30 manuscript shows evidence of Mendelssohn revising Op. 43 to more closely resemble the earlier Op. 40. Also, documentary evidence shows that he was editing the proof of Op. 40 while finishing Op. 43, and thus it is likely that the musical material of each shared many features.

Works: Mendelssohn: Serenade and Allegro Giojoso, Op. 43 (358-87).

Sources: Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto in D Minor, Op. 40 (359-87).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Mark Chilla

Recent critical response to Gioachino Rossini's opera Aureliano in Palmira (1813) has generally been negative, without any author offering a serious reevaluation of the entire work including a discussion of the opera's background, libretto, and musical content. Many passages in Aureliano in Palmira were either borrowed from his earlier works or incorporated into later works. For instance, the overture to this opera later became the overture to Il barbiere di Siviglia and, with some modifications, to Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra. Additionally, many of the macrostructures of individual scenes foreshadow Rossini's later Neopolitan style. A table indicating all the instances of self-borrowing related to this work is provided.

Works: Rossini: Aureliano in Palmira (18-30), Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra (21-22), Il barbiere di Siviglia (21-22), Giunone (cantata) (21-22), Otello (22), Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo (22).

Sources: Rossini: Aureliano in Palmira (18-30), Tancredi (22).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Mark Chilla

Although opera and rock music are seemingly situated on different sides of a cultural, stylistic, and aesthetic divide, rock and pop songs of the 1970s and later have occasionally appropriated some style characteristics from opera. Although many rock works are considered "rock operas" and some classical works were written by rock musicians, none of these works owes much to the stylistic norms of the other genre. On the other hand, a work like Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (from the 1974 album A Night at the Opera) does incorporate many operatic characteristics, such as a cappella vocals, lamenting ballads, sarcastic recitatives, distorted operatic phraseology, underworld motifs, and so forth. These characteristics are not instances of direct borrowing of any operatic source, but are rather more general features of the style, integrated and exaggerated as a parody. Punk rock artists in the 1980s like Nina Hagen, Klaus Nomi, and Malcolm McLaren incorporated opera more directly, with more reverence for the genre, and with the intention of promoting female and homosexual voices. Hagen incorporated expressionist operatic influences and coloratura technique into her music. Nomi appropriated entire operatic arias into his eclectic music, including Handel's aria "Total Eclipse" from Samson, not as a parody but rather with a camp aesthetic. McLaren created dance-rock versions of grand opera, including "Un bel dì" from Madama Butterfly and the "The Flower Duet" from Délibe's Lakmé.

Works: Freddie Mercury (songwriter), Queen (performers): Bohemian Rhapsody (192-194); Nina Hagen: New York, New York (196); Kristian Hoffman (songwriter), Klaus Nomi (performer): Total Eclipse (197-98); Purcell (composer), Klaus Nomi (arranger/performer): The Cold Song (197); Saint-Saëns (composer), Klaus Nomi (arranger/performer): Samson and Delilah (Aria) (197); Malcolm McLaren: Madame Butterfly (198-99).

Sources: David Bowie: Fashion (196); Purcell: King Arthur (197); Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila (197); Handel: Samson (197-98); Puccini: Madama Butterfly (198-99); Délibe: Lakmé (199).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Mark Chilla

During the years he was writing to Clara Schumann (1854-56), Johannes Brahms seems to have used musical ciphers and allusions in two of his pieces in much the same way that Robert Schumann used them, as meaningful references to Clara. Brahms compared the character of his Piano Quintet in C Minor, Op. 60, to Goethe's Werther, a man with unrequited love for a married woman, a possible allusion to the scenario between Brahms and Clara. A passage in this quintet also has musical allusions to Beethoven's An Die Ferne Geliebte, a work which Schumann quoted in his own Piano Fantasie, Op. 17, and to Schubert's Am Meer from Schwanengesang. Both songs contain themes of unattainable beauty and hopeless love. Likewise, Brahms's Piano Trio in B Major, Op. 8, contains an allusion to Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, a work Clara was rehearsing during the time of their correspondence. In this same trio, Brahms also borrowed the C-L-A-R-A cipher from Robert Schumann's Symphony No. 4 in D Minor, Op. 120, a theme with obvious references to Clara. The work also contains allusions to Schumann's Manfred Overture and Schumann's opera Genoveva, an opera about a man who falls in love with his master's wife.

Works: Brahms: Piano Trio in B Major, Op. 8 (432-34), Piano Quintet in C Minor, Op. 60 (432-33); Robert Schumann, Fantasie, Op. 17 (433).

Sources: Beethoven: An Die Ferne Geliebte (432-33), Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58 (433); Schubert: Am Meer (432-33); Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 4 in D Minor, Op. 120 (433), Genoveva (433-34), Manfred Overture (434).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Mark Chilla

Vincenzo Bellini was once thought by the scholarly community to be immune from practices of self-borrowing, but evidence shows that he reworked material as much as Handel and Rossini. In Bellini's time, self-borrowing was deemed dishonest and unprofessional, and the critics and audiences were very aware of his self-borrowings. He reworked many passages from his earlier operas (before 1828) into his later operas, totaling twenty-five recycled melodies. Most of these melodic reworkings reduce the motivic material to make it more economical and declamatory. The reworkings also share with the original a formal function, poetic meter and content, and dramatic situation, although in one instance (the 1829 Zaira and the 1830 I Capuleti e i Montecchi) Bellini set a once happy cavatina into a much darker expressive context. Even unconscious borrowings, like between Il pirata and I puritani, have dramatic similarities, although they do not share formal function. All of this evidence shows that even though nineteenth-century opera is by its very nature conventional and thus often dismissed as musically uninteresting, these conventions are often instances of self-borrowing, which can be of more analytical interest.

Works: Bellini: Il pirata (25-27, 37-43), La sonnambula (28-29, 31), Norma (31, 37), I Capuleti e i Montecchi (32, 47-52), Zaira (37), La straniera (43-47), I puritani (53-66).

Sources: Bellini: Ernani (28, 31), Adelson e Salvini (32, 37-47), Bianca e Fernando (32, 37), Zaira (32, 47-52), Beatrice di Tenda (32-36), Norma (32-36), Il pirata (53-66).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Mark Chilla