Due to the recovery of a few sixteenth-century compositional drafts, attention has recently been turned to the process of composition in the Renaissance. It appears, from these manuscripts, that students of composition were still being taught to compose one line at a time and learned their craft by imitating older masters, modeling new pieces directly on old ones. Emulation was not only pedagogical but may have also been used as a means of competition or of paying homage to other composers. Composers of chansons in the fifteenth century imitated one another in various ways. All of these kinds of emulation in composition seem to relate directly to the late medieval and Renaissance concept of imitation, known to Tinctoris and applied to music possibly as early as the late fourteenth or early fifteenth centuries. Presumably it was taught as well. Some theories concerning imitation in music, particularly those of Lewis Lockwood, are relevant to the topic. Before the advent of syntactic imitation, there were two principal methods of composition, which continued through the sixteenth century. The first consisted of the addition of new lines around a cantus firmus, the medieval contribution to polyphony. The second relied on the newer techniques of imitatio beginning in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.

Works: Anonymous: En contemplant la beaulté de m'amye (2-6, 8, 15); Isaac: Helas que pourra devenir mon cueur (15-21, 25); Anonymous: On est bien malade par amer trop (21-25); Busnois or Caron: Cent mille escus quant je voldroie (25-29); Anonymous: La Martinella (32-34); Isaac: La Martinella (35-37).

Sources: Anonymous: Vivent vivent en payx tous loyaux pastoreaux (6-8); Caron: Helas que pourra devenir mon cueur (15-19), O vie fortunée (25-29); Busnois: On a grant mal par trop amer/On est bien malade (21-23); Martini: La Martinella (29-35).

Index Classifications: 1400s, 1500s

Contributed by: Wendy Jeanne McHenry

The view that originality is the main force in the creative process grew out of the extended period of influence that humanism held over the arts in England and the rest of Europe. During this time, imitation of ancient authors was an accepted and even required practice. The reaction of those concerned with the excesses and questionable morality of artists who copied literally from other sources led to a considerable literature on imitation and plagiarism. It is in the middle of the eighteenth century, and first in England, that the concepts of both originality and plagiarism became significant elements in critical writings. To be unoriginal could only mean a lack of genius. This foundation of new ideas made possible much of the further development of aesthetic criticism and artistic achievement in all the arts in the nineteenth century.

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Wendy Jeanne McHenry

The Josquin attribution and the proposed Richafort authorship of the Missa Quem dicunt homines are reexamined by means of a comparison of the formal features and imitative techniques of the imitation Masses of Josquin and Richafort with those of the Missa Quem dicunt homines. Aspects of the Elevation motet inserted within the Mass suggest Févin as yet another possibility. The examination reveals, however, that Josquin, Richafort, and Févin are not viable candidates for authorship. The Mass was probably composed before 1518 and was perhaps written by a member of the French court chapel of Louis XII, Anne de Bretagne, or Francis I.

Works: Attributed to Josquin: Missa Quem dicunt homines; Josquin: Missa D'ung aultre amer (90-91), Missa Malheur me bat (88, 90-91), Missa Fortuna desperate (90-91), Missa Mater Patris (90-91); Richafort: Missa O Genitrix (93-95), Missa Veni Sponsa Christi (93-95); Févin: Missa Parva (97-99), Missa Dictes moy toutes voz pensées (102), Missa Ave Maria (102), Missa Mente tota (102), Missa Sancta Trinitas (102).

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: Wendy Jeanne McHenry

Although borrowing was not unusual in Handel's time, no other leading composer of the period is known to have borrowed on the same scale as Handel, so that the practice of the time does not fully explain why Handel borrowed. Nor do any of the more personal explanations offered in the past prove very satisfactory. Rather, it appears that Handel "had a basic lack of facility in inventing original ideas," writing melodies, and attaining fluency in the operatic style. These speculations do not diminish Handel's stature, and he deserves to be judged solely by the effects he achieves.

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Wendy Jeanne McHenry

Stone traces the performance history and historical importance of Ives's Fourth Symphony and describes each movement in detail. Stone attacks what he considers the noncommittal quality of Ives's music, his reluctance to compose using his own thematic ideas, as well as Ives's tendency to build complex and unconventional musical structures from simple and familiar tunes that have no musical relevance to the whole work and no interrelationship among themselves. While the symphony is significant for its historic interest and because in makes an enormous impact on anyone who listens to it, Stone concludes that its many self-contradictions in taste, artistry, and spirit seem too serious and too powerful to permit wholehearted acceptance.

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Wendy Jeanne McHenry