Folk music has been used as source material for composers of many eras. Composers of the Viennese classic period were influence by and used folk music in their compositions; for example, Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 uses a Yugoslavian dance melody for the primary theme. Other composers who used folk material include Chopin, Smetana, Dvořák, and Mussorgsky. In the twentieth century, composers began to collect or study folk music in an attempt to integrate that music into their style. Three possibilities exist for the use of folk materials in Western art music. A composer can simply compose an accompaniment for an existing folk melody, a newly composed melody can take on folk characteristics, or folk music can be integrated into the style of a composer to such an extent that neither folk melodies or imitations of folk melodies are used, but the composer's works are imbued with the style of peasant music.

Works: Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Pastoral (340); Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsodies (340); Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps (343); Kodály: Psalmus Hungaricus (344).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes

While at university in Manchester, Peter Maxwell Davies immersed himself in early music. From the Liber Usualis, the volumes in the Tudor Church Music series, and performances at Manchester Cathedral, Davies heard and studied this repertoire. Upon purchasing the volume of John Dunstable's works in the Musica Britannica collection, Davies began to use Dunstable's music in his own compositions as an alternative to the serial procedures currently in vogue. He says that he borrowed the idea of plainsong transformation from Dunstable, as well as the manner in which he structured rhythm. Davies was also concerned with aesthetic expression and the process in which a composition would speak to the listener. In order to reach the height of expression, a composition must also be in correct proportion, an idea Davies shares with Dunstable. However, the proportional structure need not be heard to communicate to the listener. Davies also uses the vocabulary of early music when he speaks of a cantus or tenor working its way through his compositions. For Davies, this is no mere intellectual exercise, but a compositional process which he believes allows him to communicate to a wide audience.

Works: Davies: Prolation (3).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes

Peter Maxwell Davies consistently demonstrates an interest in the medieval and Renaissance periods in his compositional output. He begins with material borrowed from works in these periods and through his treatment of that material creates symbolic effects of powerful meaning. In addition to borrowing, Davies also utilizes parody as a compositional device, creating a commentary on the past and the present. In compositions such as Alma Redemptoris Mater and Fantasia on an In Nomine of John Taverner Nos. 1 and 2, the borrowed material is built into the structural framework of the work and therefore is less audible. Shakespeare Music uses the same technique, but fragmentary allusions to the models are occasionally allowed to come through the texture. Parody is employed in the Purcell realizations Fantasia and Two Grounds and Two Pavans,Taverner, and Antechrist. In these compositions borrowed material is used more extensively and can be heard in surface details.

Works: Davies: Fantasia and Two Grounds (12), Two Pavans (12), Taverner (12), Ecce manus tradentis (13), Antechrist (13), Shakespeare Music (13), L'homme armé (14), Revelation and Fall (14), Songs for a Mad King (14), Worldes Blis (14), St. Thomas Wake (15).

Sources: Davies: O Magnum Mysterium (12); Anonymous: Deo confitemini Domini (13); Bull: Pavan (15).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes

Michael Tippett used musical borrowing in his compositions to create extramusical meanings through the quotation of pre-existent music. Many of his works borrow from external and internal sources. His procedures varied from simple quotation within the context of an original work to complex recomposition of another composer's work. He began through the application of variation technique and quotation, as in the Piano Sonata No. 1 and A Child of Our Time, in which he used spirituals, respectively. Beginning in the Divertimento on Sellinger's Round, Tippett placed the pre-existent material in each of the five movements either complete or transformed. Recomposition was applied to two Corelli works in the Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli. Tippett abandoned such borrowing practices for a substantial period of time, but later returned to them, though tempered by a severe, economic sense, as in The Knot Garden. Tippett then moved into a borrowing practice based on unification in which a web of compositions is thematically connected through self-quotation, beginning with his Symphony No. 4 and continuing into The Mask of Time. Tippett's borrowing techniques consisted of a vast range of dramatic and poetic techniques to create powerful meanings within his compositions.

Works: Tippett: Piano Sonata No. 1 (13), Fantasia on a Theme of Handel (13), A Child of Our Time (13), Suite for the Birthday of Prince Charles (13), The Midsummer Marriage (13), Divertimento on Sellinger's Round (15), The Mask of Time (15, 17-18), Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli (15), The Knot Garden (16), Songs for Dov (16), Symphony No. 3 (16-17), Triple Concerto (17).

Sources: Tippett: Suite for the Birthday of Prince Charles (13); Byrd: Sellinger's Round (15); Gibbons: Fantasia (15); Veni creator spiritus (15); Corelli: Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 2 (15), Trio Sonata Op. 3, No. 4 (15); Schubert: Die liebe Farbe (16); Beethoven: Kennst du das Land? Op. 75, No. 1 (16), Symphony No. 9 in D Minor (16); Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer (16); Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov (16); Tippett: Come Unto the Yellow Sands (16), King Priam (16), String Quartet No. 4 (17), Symphony No. 4 (17-18), Triple Concerto (18); Dowland: I Saw My Lady Weep (18); Monteverdi: Ecco mororar l'onde (18).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes

Schoenberg and his circle were quite opposed to a return to past forms to compensate for the problems of composing in a new harmonic language. Yet, at least some of them desired a return back to some compositional techniques of the past; for example, Webern wished to return to a polyphonic manner of thinking. Berg is no exception, and he demonstrates this in Wozzeck, the Kammerkonzert,Lulu, and the Violin Concerto. In each of these compositions, Berg employs cantus firmus technique, specifically chorale variations. The primary motivator in the treatment of the cantus firmus stems from his desire to produce dramatic action, even in the non-operatic works, and to provide meaning for the texts uttered by the characters in his operatic compositions. Berg's treatment of the chorale variations includes fugato, diminution, canon, and other various types of counterpoint. Furthermore, in the passages examined here, Berg creates the accompanying voices from the cantus firmus, allowing for greater unity in a contrapuntal context.

Works: Berg: Wozzeck (57-58), Kammerkonzert (58-59), Lulu (59-62), Violin Concerto (62-65).

Sources: Bach: Es ist genug (63).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes

A web of influence and borrowing exerted itself in the friendships between Edvard Grieg, Frederick Delius, and Percy Grainger. Grieg's Norwegian folksong settings served as models for Grainger's own folksong arrangements, and specific musical quotations exist in Delius's On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, a meditation on Grieg's "I Ola Dalom." Delius quotes the melody from Grieg's setting, but was also influenced by his textures, harmonic structure, free variation, and development. It has also been noted that Delius's composition has a resemblance to Grieg's "The Students' Serenade" from Moods, Op. 73, No. 6. Furthermore, the interval of a descending minor third from leading tone to dominant is borrowed from Grieg. This melodic interval resembles a cuckoo call and was likely to have prompted Delius to use Grieg's setting as a model from which to draw.

Works: Delius: On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring (13, 15-19).

Sources: Grieg: Norwegian Folk Songs, Op. 66: "Je gaar I tusind tanker" (12),"I Ola Dalom (12-18), Moods, Op. 73, No. 6, "The Student's Serenade" (17-18).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes, Tong Cheng Blackburn

The sketchbooks for Peter Maxwell Davies's Symphony No. 3 can be used to reconstruct the composer's precompositional workings. These sketchbooks illustrate the composer's use of sieving, pitch and durational matrices, and magic squares. The initial operation used is that of sieving, in which the pitch content of the borrowed material is reduced by selecting the portion to be used and omitting repeated pitches from the sieved set. A pitch matrix is a square in which each pitch of the sieved set is placed, much like a twelve-tone row matrix, horizontally across the top of the square. However, the set is also written vertically down the first column of the matrix. The square is then completed through transposition of each row in accordance with the first pitch of that row from the sieved set. To form the durational matrix, each note in the pitch matrix is numbered horizontally across each row, working left to right. Magic squares are mathematically generated squares which can correspond to celestial bodies; for example, Davies uses the Magic Square of Mercury in the Symphony No. 3. Each pitch from the pitch/durational matrix is transferred to the magic square according to its number. Davies subjects his borrowed material, a plainchant, to these manipulations to generate compositional material. Through abstract procedures, Davies creates a new musical work based on borrowed material, but without that material being evident.

Works: Davies: Symphony No. 3. (14-22).

Sources: Anonymous: Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in praelio (16, 18).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes

Many attempts have been made to identify the origin of Elgar's "Enigma" theme. However, such study of melodic affinity is futile. Melodic similarities can be found among many different pieces, most of which bear no relationship with each other. To prove this point, a computer was utilized to identify the relationship of material between compositions. The first study was that of Mozart's Requiem in D Minor, K. 626, to determine the amount of melodic affinity between the movements by Mozart and those by Süssmayr. This method was then employed for the purposes of identifying similarities with the "Enigma" theme. The compositions employed in this study were Elgar's Variations on an Original Theme for Orchestra, Enigma, his overture Alassio (In the South), and the slow movement from Mozart's Symphony No. 38 in D, K. 504 (Prague). As expected, many affinities were discovered between the three works. Thus, the study of melodic affinity is not conclusive, or even probable, when it cannot be coupled with documentary evidence.

Works: Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme for Orchestra, Enigma (241-44, 251-57).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes

Peter Maxwell Davies's range of borrowings includes plainchant, English carols, elements from Monteverdi's Vespers, and Taverner's In Nomine. Davies's treatment of his borrowed material can be a simple setting, as in movements I, IV, and VI of the Seven In Nomine, in which the settings by Taverner, Bull, and Blitheman are heard unadorned, or in a contrapuntal treatment, as in the second movement of this set of In Nomine when he presents Taverner's melody in retrograde. Alma Redemptoris Mater, a wind sextet, based on the Dunstable motet, uses a cantus firmus-style presentation of melodic material. Davies also uses a motet in Antechrist, but allows it to be destroyed through glissandi, jazz-like allusions, and other ironic techniques. He uses a similar technique in his Purcell realizations, interpreting Purcell's works as foxtrots. The String Quartet takes ideas from the Monteverdi Vespers and presents the cantus firmus in measured time with generated melismas occurring above the melody.

Works: Davies: Seven In Nomine (36-37, 40), Alma Redemptoris Mater (39), Five Motets (39), String Quartet (39), Leopardi Fragments (39-40), Sinfonia (39), Veni Sancte Spiritus (39-40), Shakespeare Music (40), Antechrist (40), Fantasia on a Ground and Two Pavans (82).

Sources: Plainsong (36); English carols (36); Monteverdi: 1610 Vespers (36, 39); Taverner: In Nomine (36-37); Bull: In Nomine (36); Blitheman: In Nomine; Dunstable: Alma Redemptoris Mater (39); Stravinsky: Agon (40).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes

Closer scrutiny of the lieder of Anton Webern can reveal the influence of Hugo Wolf. This is true not only of style, but also in the borrowing of actual musical content. This can be pitch specific, for example in "Aufblick," Webern uses a notational "perversion" of B flat-B double flat-A flat, which is identical to Wolf in "Lebe wohl," or they can be less referential, such as an ascending third followed by a descending semitone in Wolf's "Frage und Antwort." Another borrowing type includes specific chromatic chord progressions as in Webern's "Heimgang in der Frühe" and Wolf's "Das verlassene Mägdlein." Wolf's influence on Webern is widely known, which only affirms the possibility of borrowing from the elder composer. This is further strengthened by the fact that all references to Wolf's lieder are to those contained in the Mörike-Liederbuch.

Works: Webern: Aufblick (21, 22), Fromm (23-24), Heimgang in der Frühe (24-25), Sommerabend (25).

Sources: Wolf: Lebe wohl (21-22), Frage und Antwort (22), Gesang Weylas (23-24), Das Verlassene Mägdlein (24-25), Um Mitternacht (25).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes

Many composers have tried to create art music from folk music. These two types of music should not be combined. In his String Quartet Op. 59, No. 2, Beethoven only treated the borrowed Russian folk melody in a fugato-like manner. A melody that is used in a large-scale formal structure must lend itself to developmental processes. A folk melody is complete in itself. This is beautiful music, unlike artificial "folk" melodies which try to represent the spirit of the people, yet result in trivial condescension. A motive, unlike a folk melody, is incomplete; for example, the opening motive of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 must be elaborated and developed to achieve its true character and to exhaust its expression. When folk song is used in a symphony, because the song is already complete, all composers can do is apply techniques of development, such as repetition, transposition, changes of instrumentation, and sequence.

Works: Beethoven: String Quartet in E Minor, Op. 59, No. 2 (162).

Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes

The Lyric Suite of Alban Berg has several connections to Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. The final movement is strictly serial, yet Berg created borrowings from the music drama through the structure of his row forms. At one point, Berg even quotes the opening bars of the Prelude to Tristan, made possible through the structure of the pitch row. Furthermore, the set-type of the Tristan chord is a subset of one of the two row forms used in this movement. What is remarkable about the borrowings from Tristan is that they relate to the secret program of Berg's work. The names Alban Berg and Hanna Fuchs-Robettin create the pitches A, B flat, B, F (0, 1, 2, 6), a motive whose set type is the same as a Tristan motive, in the first four pitches of the cello, thus creating a correlation throughout the two works and an association between the Tristan myth and Berg's unfulfilled relationship. In Tristan, the cello part is heard in the highest voice in inversion. This motive, a minor sixth followed by three semitones in the opposite direction, creates the set-type (0, 1, 2, 3, 7). Berg's use of serialism thus creates a strong relationship with the past.

Works: Berg: Lyric Suite (33-41).

Sources: Wagner: Prelude to Tristan und Isolde (33-41).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes

Peter Maxwell Davies's compositions have often been interpreted through dialectical criticism. Davies seeks a fundamental truth through the juxtaposition of opposing ideas. In the case of Vesalii Icones, this opposition occurs between Davies's use of a plainsong, Ecce manus tradentis, and portions of Pierre de la Rue's Missa L'homme armé. Scholars tend to read this work as an opposition of good and evil resulting in the eventual triumph of evil manifested in the Antichrist. Davies achieves this conflict through stylistic juxtaposition, parody, stripping the music of any decoration or embellishment in a reverse Schenkerian process, and stylistic transformation of material into a foxtrot parody. Yet, this interpretation of the work ultimately rests on the shoulders of Davies's analysis, his "program" given in the liner notes to the recording of Vesalii Icones, and his attitude toward popular music as inherently untruthful. One can also interpret this composition in terms of deconstruction. Deconstruction, unlike dialectics, attempts to eradicate a closed system of interpretation and resists the urge to use the opposing ideology to reinforce the primary belief. In this composition, the opposing forces are rarely stable enough to produce dominance of one over the other. Instead, what Davies has done is to juxtapose several conflicting ideas through "distortion," "ambiguity," "dissolution," and "fragmentation." Davies borrows from a specific repertoire to undermine that repertoire and distort ideas for which it stands, in an attempt to deconstruct those ideas, but what emerges results is an open composition in which multiple interpretations are possible.

Works: Davies: Vesalii Icones (14-20), Missa super L'homme armé (14).

Sources: Plainsong: Ecce manus tradentis (15-16); Pierre de la Rue: Missa L'homme armé (16).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes

The middle period works of Roberto Gerhard utilize the Spanish musical past through borrowing pre-existent material. His attitude toward Spanish music, both art and popular, was instilled in Gerhard by his teacher Felipe Pedrell. Gerhard then transformed this musical material to represent a universal significance. Some works simply demonstrate the influence of folk material in melodic shape and intervallic content, while others employ borrowed folk songs. Gerhard utilized folk material in a substantial number of compositions in folksong settings and other works. Through his study with Arnold Schoenberg, Gerhard was able to incorporate this preexistent material into his newly acquired technique, for example in the Sardanas where he modifies the form and harmonic content of the dance. In works such as Don Quixote and Pandora, his borrowing reveals a symbolic feature that he retains in many other compositions. His opera The Duenna, a Spanish national opera in many respects, utilizes popular and art music traditions. Gerhard also subjected the borrowed material to twelve-tone procedures, for example in the Harpsichord Concerto and Cello Sonata. In his later, more abstract works, this Spanish identity becomes subtler, as in the Concerto for Orchestra and Symphony No. 4.

Works: Gerhard: Seven Haiku (3), Dos Apunts (3), Cantata: L'Alta Naixença del Rei en Jaume (4, 6), Albada, Interludi I Danza (4, 7), Pedrelliana (4), Sardanas (6), Don Quixote (7), Pandora (8), Violin Concerto (8-9), The Duenna (9), Three Impromptus (10), Harpsichord Concerto (11), Cello Sonata (11), Nonet (12), Symphony No. 4 (12-13).

Sources: La Tornada del Pelegri (3); El Mal Rico (3); El Cotiló (4, 6, 13); La Cinta Dauvada (6); El Carbonerot (6); L'Escolta (6); El Bon Caçador (7); Assassi per Amor (7); Chacona de Palació (7); Rosa del Folló (8); El Mestre (8); La Germana Rescatada (8); Ad Mortem Festinamus (8, 10); La Marseillaise (9); Sevillanas del 18 siglo (9); Cançó de Batre (10); Las Tres Hojas (10); Copla de Columpio (10); El Contrabandista (10); Los Pelegrinitos (10, 11); Copla de Corro (11); El Paño (12); Retraídaestá la Infanta (12); Salinas: Cantilena Vulgar (7), Canción Muy Popularizada (7); Alicante: Antón Pirulero (8); Grimau: Tirana del Zarandillo (9).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes

Beginning in the mid-1970s, György Kurtág began to reflect a musical past through quotation, many of which refer to his own personal experiences rather than an attempt to convey universal relevance. Kurtág's music can be discussed in relation to Theodor Adorno's idea of "sedimentation" and the concept of subjective memory described by Georg Lukács. The string quartet Officium breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánsky borrows music of Anton Webern, specifically the canonic structure of the sixth movement of Cantata No. 2, and Endre Szervánsky's Serenade for String Orchestra. Kurtág utilizes pre-existent material to evoke an historical awareness of musical material similar to Adorno's concept of sedimentation; that music has an historic relationship to society and may or may not have relevance to that society. For Kurtág, Webern's music recalls the memory of his student years in Paris where he extensively studied this music. Furthermore, Kurtág's Op. 1 string quartet is inextricably connected to the works of Webern. Quotation thus creates a complex web of memory in Kurtág's compositions.

Works: Kurtág: Officium breve in memorium Andreae Szervánsky, Op. 26 (52, 56, 60, 62-66), Játékok (51, 56-57, 62-66).

Sources: Webern: Cantata No. 2 (52, 60, 63); Szervánsky: Serenade for String Orchestra (52, 60, 64-65); Kurtág: Játékok (51, 56-57, 62-66), String Quartet, Op. 1 (63-64).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Christopher Holmes