Rochberg is an imitator who does not place his personal stamp on the compositions he quotes. Rochberg's style of quotation presents a shallow picture of the composer he tries to portray without adding anything of his own.

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Sergio Bezerra

Chansons spirituelles were spiritual songs encouraged and disseminated by the Calvinists for performance in the home. Except for one collection, all extant chansons spirituelles are in the form of text, meant to be set to well-known secular songs. The exception is a collection by Jacques Buus from 1550. Four of his pieces are based on preexisting works. In these chansons Buus's method of composition involves the reshaping of a tune by compression or fragmentation, which is then surrounded by new material. In an earlier secular chanson anthology (1543), Buus parodies eight models. Typically, he either quotes the existing material exactly and surrounds it with new material, or treats each voice as a model to be paraphrased, with one in particular dominating.

Works: Buus: A toy Seigneur (158), Chantons de cueur (158), Christ souffrit peine (157), Pour ung plaisir (157), Content desir (164), Vivre ne puis content (164), Ces fascheaux sotz (164), Doulce mémoire (164), Dieu vous gard (165).

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: John F. Anderies, Sergio Bezerra

Many twentieth-century composers are motivated to borrow musical materials out of a sense of nostalgia. Two practices can be found: that of Mahler and Ives and that of the neo-classicists. Mahler and Ives both used quoted material drawn from popular and folk culture, Mahler for the purpose of capturing the spirit of the people and thus enabling himself to speak for them, Ives for the purpose of presenting his observations of life and nature; both seldom develop their musical materials. Ives's process of composition is similar to that of the writer James Joyce, in that both begin with simple subjects and use them to create multi-layered meanings. In contrast to Mahler and Ives, the neo-classicists display their nostalgia through reference not to popular music but to the art music of the 18th century. Ironically, the listener finds neo-classicism, with its limited frame of reference, easier to grasp than the music of Ives and Mahler, which draws from a larger pool of resources.

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Sergio Bezerra, Randal Tucker, Jessica Sternfeld

Ronsard's poem "Bon jour mon coeur" was set to music by five composers during the 1560s and 1570s, including Lassus, Goudimel, Jean de Castro, Philippe de Monte, and André Pevernage. The latter composed a parody of Lassus's chanson that doubles the length and number of voices of the model.

Works: Buus: Douce memoire (369); Gardane: Amours sans fin est le cordier cordant (369); Pevernage: Bon jour mon coeur (368-77).

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: Sergio Bezerra

About 1500 there occurred a change of model for the Mass from chanson to motet. This change was due in part to the significant output of motet types. The rising importance of the text in the motet caused composers to be alert to the opportunity of drawing upon text associations to generate certain musical procedures in the Mass. In addition, the importance given to the text caused composers to think and write motivically. This type of motivic construction, not present in the 15th century, was crucial to the development of the 16th-century parody Mass.

Works: Claudin: Missa Domine quis habitat (57); Gombert: Missa Sancta Maria (57); Therache: Missa Quem dicunt homines (57); de Hondt: Missa Benedictus Dominus (57); Obrecht: Missa Rosa playsant (58): Josquin: Missa D'ung aultre amer (58): Barbingant: Missa Terribilment (62); Obrecht: Missa Ave Regina (63), Missa Si didero (63); Josquin: Missa Mater Patris (63): Févin: Missa Mente tota (64), Missa Ave Maria (64); Mouton: Missa Quem dicunt homines (64); Divitis: Missa Quem dicunt homines (64).

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: Sergio Bezerra

The multidimensionality of Bach's borrowing technique defies efforts to characterize it with terms such as "parody" or "transcription." The derogatory associations that these terms carry obscure the variety of Bach's techniques, such as reorchestration, intensification of counterpoint or melodic material, and even "reminiscence" of material from a different location in the same work. For example, the Triple Concerto in A Minor, BWV 1044, is not a simple transcription of the concertino from the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto, but a reworking that results in a far greater complexity of texture, while the opening of the Gloria from the Mass in A Major, BWV 234, is a parody of the last movement of Cantata 67 yet resembles the Kyrie from the same Mass, for which no model can be found. The idea of "transcription" is clearly too narrow to describe some works whose relationships extend beyond the ostensible model to other compositions. Bach's parody technique should be regarded as an elaboration of pre-existing works into new compositions, as well as a manifestation of his power of invention.

Works: Bach: Triple Concerto in A Minor, BWV 1044 (115-16), Cantata, BWV 146, Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal (117), Harpsichord Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1052, Mass in A Major, BWV 234 (117-19), Mass in F Major, BWV 233 (117-22), Prelude, Fugue, and Allegro in E-flat Major, BWV 998 (122-23).

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Alexander J. Fisher, Sergio Bezerra

Ives's Fourth of July is characterized by polymeter, polytonality, dense textures, and quotations from popular and folk tunes. It is a fully integrated work whose multiple layerings and quotations had deep philosophical implications for the composer. Ives, the Transcendentalist, was able to perceive a unity among superficial and discordant events. In this work, he creates analogies to four types of events: acoustical (music of parades, church services, and so on); natural phenomena (violin glissando passage representing smoke); psychological phenomena; and non-programmatic musical unity.

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Sergio Bezerra

Rochberg, who began as an atonal composer, has reincorporated tonality into his style as a reaction against the limitation of expression in atonal music. His Third String Quartet juxtaposes sections of atonal music with sections that strongly suggest the styles of Beethoven and Mahler, without using direct quotation. For example, the quartet's finale resembles the finale of Mahler's Ninth Symphony in hamony, mood, use of pedal point, and melodic figures to the point where one can see the two passages as belonging to the same piece. Motivic unification is used to unite historical with modern styles. Rochberg uses the styles of Beethoven and Mahler because of their expressive connotations and incorporates them into a new context. This way of using the music of the past is not reactionary, but progressive.

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Jessica Sternfeld, Sergio Bezerra