[+] Block, Geoffrey. "Ives and the 'Sounds That Beethoven Didn't Have.'" In Charles Ives and the Classical Tradition, ed. Geoffrey Block and J. Peter Burkholder, 34-50. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.
Ives's borrowings from Beethoven in his Concord Sonata extend beyond reverence and homage. Ives integrates the famous four-note opening to Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 into his own theme, which he calls the "human faith melody." By reworking Beethoven's motto into a new context, Ives pays tribute to Beethoven and also challenges Beethoven's music by improving the material with new sounds Beethoven might have used had he been Ives's contemporary. The Concord Sonata thus displays Ives's success in overcoming what Harold Bloom calls the "anxiety of influence" by confronting Beethoven's influence head-on.
Works: Ives: Arrangement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 2, No. 1 (34-37), Second Piano Sonata (Concord) (37-50).
Sources: Beethoven: Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 2, No. 1 (34-37), Symphony No. 5 in C Minor (40-44,47-50), Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 106 (Hammerklavier) (44-47); Simeon B. Marsh: Martyn (42-45); Charles Zeuner: Missionary Chant (42-44).
Index Classifications: 1900s
Contributed by: Brent C. Reidy
Individual record
[+] Metzer, David. "Musical Decay: Luciano Berio's 'Rendering' and John Cage's 'Europera 5.'" Journal of the Royal Musical Association 125 (2000): 93-114.
In Luciano Berio's Rendering and John Cage's Europera 5, creation of new music through the "restoration" and "reproduction" of old materials offers more than just a way of holding onto the past. Both compositions examine the decay and loss intrinsic to past materials which makes that past less accessible. In Rendering, based on Schubert's sketches toward a tenth symphony, Berio incorporates his own music with sections of Schubert's unfinished symphony, sometimes filling in the gaps in Schubert's sketches, while at other times dismantling and reconfiguring the material to make it sound incomplete. Berio restores Schubert's symphony not in the traditional sense, but rather to a fragmented state which suggests the deterioration of the past. Europera 5 similarly pieces together fragments of past operas to suggest that the concept of opera has deteriorated. Cage's nostalgia mediates a sense of loss through presentation of these fragments as disjointed, antique, and irrecoverable.
Works: Berio: Rendering (95-103, 108-113), Chemins (96), Sinfonia (96, 113); Cage: Europera 5 (95, 103-113), Europera 1 &2 (103-104).
Sources: Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor (96, 113) Schubert: Symphony No. 10 (96-103, 108-113); Cage: Truckera (104).
Index Classifications: 1900s
Contributed by: Brent C. Reidy
Individual record
[+] Schmidt, Tracey. "Debussy, Crumb, and Musical Borrowing in An Idyll for the Misbegotten." In George Crumb and the Alchemy of Sound: Essays on His Music, ed. Steven Michael Bruns, Ofer Ben-Amots, and Michael D. Grace, 171-94. Colorado Springs: Colorado College Music Press, 2005.
In George Crumb's Idyll for the Misbegotten, quotations of Claude Debussy's Syrinx serve many functions. Crumb evokes the morbid mythology of Pan and Syrinx through the quotation, which strengthens his program for Idyll.Syrinx is also used as material upon which Idyll elaborates: Crumb explores pitch structure as implicated by Debussy, composes Idyll in an expanded version of the form of Syrinx, bases tonal functions on the prominent A-Eb tritone in Syrinx, and expands Debussy's exploration of flute technique with numerous special effects. All this leads to an intensification of the innovative elements found in the quoted passage.
Works: Crumb: Idyll for the Misbegotten (171-94).
Sources: Debussy: Syrinx (171-94).
Index Classifications: 1900s
Contributed by: Brent C. Reidy
Individual record
