In the last few years, interest has increased in the connections between Mahler's song and symphonies. While there is general agreement on these connnections in the vocal symphonies II, III, IV, and VIII, and the instrumental symphonies I and IX, there is less certainty for the middle symphonies V, VI, and VII. The Kindertotenlieder and the Wunderhornlieder have been linked by Theodor Adorno to symphonies VI and VII, respectively, while Monika Tibbe has determined that one motive in the first movement of the fifth symphony is quoted from the first song of the Kindertotenlieder. Brincker shows that this motive, the actual statement of which appears near the end of the movement, appears in varied form throughout the movement, a result of Mahler's own variation technique.

Works: Mahler: Symphony No. 5 (9-15), Symphony No. 1 (9-10), Symphony No. 2 (9-10), Symphony No. 3 (9-10), Symphony No. 4 (9-10), Symphony No. 6 (9-10), Symphony No. 7 (9-10), Symphony No. 8 (9-10), Symphony No. 9 (9-10).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Nikola D. Strader

In 1948, Britten composed his realization of the The Beggar's Opera. Of the realizations made of this opera, Britten's was the first to use so many of the original songs, sixty-six of the sixty-nine airs. His realizations range from supplying original accompaniments to the development of operatic forms such as melodramas, scenas, and finales based on one or more tunes. The airs as treated by Britten may be classified ino six categories: (1) "Straight setting" (similar to his folksong settings); (2) "Straight settings, but with the phrases of the air spaced apart"; (3) "Straight settings, but with the melody itself treated freely"; (4) "Settings in which the air is worked into an elaborate, but formally concise, musical scheme" (subdivided into numbers with and without chorus); (5) "Settings embodied in larger musical designs" (numbers with introductions and codas based on original material derived from the airs); and (6) "Settings in which two or more airs are used in combination." As part of his settings, Britten was able to retain the original keys of a large number of the airs. He also restored Macheath's role from a baritone, as it had been sung for several years, to the original tenor.

Works: Benjamin Britten: The Beggar's Opera.

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Nikola D. Strader

Quotation in music is often considered without exploring the context of the quoted material. Many of Beethoven's overtures follow the model of the French overture, which requires one or more quotations from the stage music. Material which is recognizably from another piece but is altered in some way is placed in the category of "adaptation," which is defined as the removal of a piece of music from its original context and conforming it to a new environment and function. This may require a new context (transcription); transposition and new instrumentation (such as placing material from a piano sonata into a chamber music piece); or new words, this last condition being termed "parody." Parody is discussed extensively with the relationships between the Joseph cantata, Leonore, and Fidelio, and between the Choral Fantasy and the Ninth Symphony. A more exhaustive investigation is necessary to determine the true extent of Beethoven's creative methods in terms of quotation, adaptation, and parody.

Works: Beethoven: Overture to Zur Weihe des Hauses, Op. 124 (172-74), Overture to Die Ruinen von Athen, Op. 113 (172-73, 175, 183-84), Overture to König Stephan, Op. 117 (172-73), Overture and drafts to Leonore (171, 187-89), Fidelio (171-72, 187-89), Overture to Egmont, Op. 84 (174), Overture to Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, Op. 43 (171, 174-75), Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 2, No. 1 (175), Piano Sonata in C Major, Op. 2, No. 3 (175), Septet in E-flat Major, Op. 20 (175), Piano Variations, Op. 35 (176), String Quartet in C Minor, Op. 18, No. 4 (177-78), String Quartet in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1 (178), Missa solemnis (179-80), Grosse Fuge, Op. 133 (181), String Quartet in F Major, Op. 59, No. 1 (182), Sring Quartet in E Minor, Op. 59, No. 2 (182), Diabelli Variations (182-83), Blümchen der Einsamkeit, Op. 52, No. 4 "Maigesang") (184, 186), Chorfantasie, Op. 80 (189-95), Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 (172, 194-95), Lied aus der Ferne, WoO 137 (186), Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93 (176).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Nikola D. Strader

Britten's Quatre Chansons Françaises, written in 1928, show four possible sources of influences: Frank Bridge, Britten's composition teacher; works whose scores Britten owned; broadcasts, recordings, and concerts; and orchestration books. Britten may have used Bridge as a model for some of the harmonies and orchestration in the first song "Les Nuits de Juin," but this is difficult to trace. Of the works he knew in score, those that seem to have had the most influence are Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Siegfried and Ravel's Introduction and Allegro.Tristan serves as a model for the end of the song cycle where the similarities are key (B Major/C-flat Major), and the spacing of the strings in the final chord, which is repeated three times as in Tristan. Also, the soprano ends on the same note (F-sharp/G-flat); the utilization of suspensions is similar; and the "Tristan chord" is blatantly quoted in the third song "L'Enfance." The influence of Ravel, along with that of Debussy, may have been acquired through broadcasts as well as scores. This French influence appears in the vocal writing; the use of non-functional progressions of seventh and ninth chords; an oscillating triplet figure in "Les Nuits de Juin"; a melodic line constructed from a chain of 025 trichords in the final song "Chanson d'Automne"; and modal inflection such as is found in the second song "Sagesse." Finally, Cecil Forsyth's book Orchestration appears to have influenced not only the orchestration but also various instructions written in the parts.

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Nikola D. Strader

Britten's Third Quartet uses material from Death in Venice, his last opera. Like Mahler with his late works and Aschenbach in the opera, Britten's inspiration "returned only under the shadow of death," and a preoccupation with life, death, peace, and beauty may be observed in the quartet. The final movement, "Passacaglia," subtitled "La Serenissima," is prefaced by five quotations from Death in Venice. The first quotation is the Barcarolle, which, in the opera, is "a transformation of the chorus's repeated calls of 'Serenissima'"; the final quotation is the love motive from the end of Act I (Aschenbach's confession of love for Tadzio, "I love you"). E Major, associated in Death in Venice with Aschenbach's quest for ideal beauty, is also used for the Passacaglia.

Works: Britten: String Quartet No. 3.

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Nikola D. Strader

The influences of Schoenberg, Mahler, Shostakovich, and far Eastern music are among those influences on which perspectives have changed since 1952. Schoenberg provided the influence, much more apparent after 1952, of serial principles, although not of serial techniques, on Britten, evident in such works as The Turn of the Screw, Cantata Academica, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Song and Proverbs of William Blake, Death in Venice, and Owen Wingrave. Mahler's influence, particularly of Das Lied von der Erde, is emphasized in the orchestral song-cycle Our Hunting Fathers. Shostakovich is acknowledged as an influence on Russian Funeral, the Piano Concerto, Op. 13, and Our Hunting Fathers. These three composers, however, are viewed mainly as influences on Britten's compositional principles (Schoenberg, as "a way of thinking"; Mahler, through "shared technical principles"; and Shostakovich, by satire and parody) rather than on his style, although stylistic similarities are present as well. The influence of the music of the Far East first appeared in the ballet The Prince of the Pagodas and the first church parable, Curlew River. The ballet evokes the sound of a Balinese gamelan, while Curlew River is based on the Japanese Noh play Sumidagawa. Britten's earliest opera Paul Bunyan enhibits similarities to Balinese music as well, which may have been suggested while Britten was in New York through his familiarity with the ethnomusicologist Colin McPhee and McPhee's two-piano transcriptions of Balinese music, Balinese Ceremonial Music.

Works: Britten: Sinfonietta, Op. 1 (25), The Turn of the Screw (26), Cantata Academica (26), A Midsummer Night's Dream (26), Songs and Proverbs of William Blake (26), Death in Venice (26, 30, 36, 43, 35), Owen Wingrave (26), Paul Bunyan (28-30, 41-44), Sinfonia da Requiem (31), Our Hunting Fathers (31, 35-36), Russian Funeral (34), Piano Concerto, Op. 13 (34), Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (38), The Prince of the Pagodas (39, 42), Curlew River (39).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Nikola D. Strader

Bartók's compositional model was Beethoven. Similarities between the two composers may be seen in form, contrapuntal writing, use of introductions and epilogues, and thematic and motivic material. The symmetrical structure of Bartók's Second Piano Concerto is compared to the form of Beethoven's String Quartet in C# Minor, Op. 131. The forms of the second movement of Bartók's Third Piano Concerto and the concerto as a whole are related to both the Second Piano Concerto and Op. 131. The second movement is also related to Beethoven's String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132, where striking similarities occur in scoring, rhythm, texture, and dynamics. Beethoven's Grosse Fuge for String Quartet, Op. 133, serves as a model for Bartók's Sixth String Quartet with parallels of meter, dynamics, articulation, use of rests, and compositional procedures. It is clear that Bartók deliberately used many of Beethoven's compositional techniqes.

Works: Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 2 (254), Piano Concerto No. 3 (254-55), String Quartet No. 6 (255-59).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Nikola D. Strader

Britten's operas and operatic style are considered to have developed from the models of Berg (Wozzeck), Stravinsky (Oedipus Rex), Hindemith (Das Nusch-Nuschi), Brecht-Weill (Die Dreigroschenoper), Pfitzner, Busoni, R. Strauss, and Verdi, while his eclecticism is compared to that of Monteverdi, Mozart, and Wagner. A specific example of Britten's modelling is that of a leitmotif from Albert Herring (Prelude to Act II, Scene 2), which may have been suggested by a passage from Act III of Verdi's Falstaff. Britten subjects his motif to variations, one of which serves as a model for his song Canticle I, and thus provides a link between Britten's operatic and lyrical styles.

Works: Britten: Albert Herring (241-42), Canticle I (243).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Nikola D. Strader

Beethoven composed two separate sketches (Paris and Vienna) on Goethe's Erlkönig. Some aspects of these settings, such as repeated notes in the treble part, the drone in the bass, and the harmonic movement to mediant-related major keys for the middle section are remarkably similar to Schubert's Wanderer and Erlkönig. Near the end of the nineteenth century, Reinhold Becker took the transcription done by Gustav Nottebohm of the Vienna sketch as the basis for a "complete version," in an attempt at what Paul H. Lang calls "the art of the second guess." Bartók then orchestrated this arrangement in a work which was unknown to Bartók scholars until the discovery of the score at the University of Illinois Music Library. Bartók made no attempt to correct any of Becker's mistakes or changes from Beethoven's setting, except for a few harmonic changes, but his orchestration provided new sophisticated treatments of rhythm, color, and dynamics not found in the arrangement or the original.

Works: Bartók: Erlkönig (308-11); Becker: Erlkönig (307-08); Beethoven: Erlkönig.

Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: Nikola D. Strader

Mahler's songs to texts from Des Knaben Wunderhorn are influenced by folk music. Those most clearly related to folk or popular songs may be divided into two groups: (1) songs that show a direct resemblance to existing songs, and (2) songs with general characteristics of a popular genre such as dance songs and soldier songs. The melodies are classified by style (diatonic, chromatic, mixed); intervallic motion (triadic, conjunct, disjunct, mixed); and rhythm (predominantly dotted, primarily smooth, mixed). Mahler follows the stylistic traditions of the nineteenth-century Lied: the simplicity and "volkstümliche character" of many of the Wunderhorn songs is similar to Schubert; the harmonic language is much like Schumann; and the nature of the accompaniment is related to Brahms. While these songs clearly reflect the influences of his predecessors and of Romantic historicism, they also show Mahler's "absorption" and "adaptation" of material which foreshadows the "total stylistic assimilation of folk music" by twentieth-century composers.

Works: Mahler: "Revelge," "Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen," "Es sungen drei Engel einen süssen Gesang," "Wir geniessen die himmlischen Freuden," "Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grünen Wald," "Rheinlegendchen," "Lied des Verfolgten im Turm" ("Die Gedanken sind frei"), "Der Tamboursg'sell," "Zu Strassburg auf der Schanz," "Verlorene Müh'," "Hans und Grethe," "Nicht wiedersehen!," "Scheiden und Meiden," "Der Schildwache Nachtlied," and "Trost im Unglück" from Des Knaben Wunderhorn.

Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: Nikola D. Strader

The four chords Britten used in Act II of A Midsummer Night's Dream are remarkably similar to those used in the setting of "Sonnet to Sleep" (Keats) in the Serenade, the differences being a reversal of the first two chords, re-spacing, and re-scoring. Both works are concerned with the subject of sleep, thus lending added weight to the possibility of self-borrowing. However, upon Roseberry's inquiry, he and Britten discovered that the similarity was completely subconscious. The chords in the opera were developed in a conscious effort to use all twelve tones in a four-chord theme to be used for dramatic and structural purposes, while those in the Serenade came, according to Britten, "as a kind of harmonic overtone to the cello phrase."

Works: Britten: A Midsummer Night's Dream, "Sonnet to Sleep" from the Serenade.

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Nikola D. Strader

Britten's "eclecticism" incorporates elements from Bach, Schubert, Berg, Stravinsky, and Purcell. The opening of Peter Grimes is described as having been "lifted" from one of the Brandenburg Concertos, while in Act II the burgesses' hornpipe and the singing of the rector are considered "sheer Schubert." Britten is compared without elaboration to Berg in terms of harmony, while Stravinsky is evoked in relation to parody in Albert Herring. Purcell's influence is described as "the most fruitful and readily definable" of Britten's manners, but this is not elaborated.

Works: Britten: Peter Grimes (248), Sinfonia da Requiem (249), Beggar's Opera (249), Spring Symphony (249), Albert Herring (249), Saint Nicolas (249), String Quartet No. 2 (249), Violin Concerto (249).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Nikola D. Strader