If we look beyond the influence of our accepted musical canon, we can see connections between Chopin’s Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Op. 35, and the literary, cultural, and musical contexts of Poland. It has long been speculated that Chopin’s ballades had some poetic connection, ever since Schumann remarked that “certain poems of Mickiewicz,” a Polish romantic poet, inspired the first two ballades. The second ballade’s seemingly problematic double key center of F major and A minor is a result of the story it tells.

Although we typically focus on the German and French precursors and contemporaries to Chopin when looking for musical influence, growing up in Poland he was familiar with the musical culture there, particularly the amateur program music that evoked Polish national topics and sentiments through musical topics and allusions to patriotic tunes and other songs. It is these pieces that provided the model for Chopin’s ballade structures.

Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23, is somewhat radical for its time. It did not follow the rational symmetry of sonata form and was much longer than a “Song Without Words,” yet had a singing quality and strong forward momentum. The final, climactic section uses a “krakowiak,” a syncopated dance in duple meter from Poland. These qualities exist because the piece is meant to describe the poem Konrad Wallenrod by Mickiewicz. They both begin with a bardic introduction, with Chopin’s opening based on a song introduction by Bellini. The rest of the piece follows the actions and interactions of the main characters in the poem.

Contemporaneous ballades, such as Clara Weick’s emotionally lyrical Ballade in D Minor, Op. 6, No. 4, and Schumann’s heroically-tinged “Balladenmässig” from the Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6, began to create an idea of the storytelling genre of the piano ballade. Chopin was also interested in many operas with ballade numbers, especially Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable, from which he derived some ideas in the second ballade including the major-minor alternations and the siciliano theme at the beginning. Combined with a storm topic derived from Rossini’s Guillaume Tell, Chopin’s ballade depicts the story of national exile and martyrdom.

Works: Chopin: Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Op. 38, Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23 (55-85); Giacomo Meyerbeer: “Raimbaut’s ballade” from Robert le Diable (104-10).

Sources: Daniel Steibelt: La journee d’Ulm (43-44); Wilhelm Würfel: Grande fantaisie lugubre au souvenir des trois héros Prince Joseph Poniatowski, Kościuszko, et Dąbrowski, composé et dediée à la nation polonaise (45-48); Bellini: L’Abbandono; Clara Wieck: Ballade in D Minor, Op. 6, No. 4 (94-95); Robert Schumann: “Balladenmässig” from Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6 (95); François-Adrien Boieldieu: “Ballade of the White Lady” from La Dame Blanche (99-101); Louis Herold: “Camilla’s ballade” from Zampa (101-3); Meyerbeer: “Raimbaut’s ballade” from Robert le Diable (104-10, 147-50); Chopin: Étude in A Minor, Op. 25, No. 11 (152-53); Rossini: Guillaume Tell (154-60).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Meredith Rigby

Brahms wished to emulate his models, and after Schumann lamented that the piano sonata was in decline, he published three forays into the genre. Hummel was a friend of Beethoven and a brilliant improvisor and composer, and his Sonata in F-sharp Minor was well known and admired by Schumann, which made him an ideal model for Brahms. Hummel’s layered (though not quite contrapuntal) pianistic texture can be seen in the three-stave section of Brahms’s own F-sharp Minor Sonata. Brahms’s Scherzo, Op. 4, also has a similar melody to the scherzo from Hummel’s Piano Quintet, Op. 87, and it employs flat sixth chords in a similar way as well. Additionally, in his Sonata, Op. 2, Brahms employs direct quotation in several places, a reworked version of the opening passage of Hummel’s Sonata, and contrapuntal passages in the finale similar to those in Hummel’s sonata. Both pieces also employ prominent harmonic and melodic movement by thirds. The motives used in Brahms’s “developing variations” in the piece are similar to the improvisatory motives in Hummel’s. The similarity in structure of the two pieces goes beyond the basic sonata form to the ways in which they stretch the traditional system.

Works: Brahms: Piano Sonata in F-sharp Minor, Op. 2 (133-38, 142-56), Scherzo, Op. 4 (138-42).

Sources: Johann Nepomuk Hummel: Piano Sonata in F-sharp Minor, Op. 81 (133-38, 142-56), Piano Quintet, Op. 87 (138-42).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Meredith Rigby

In the midst of the English Victorian era’s focus on propriety, commercial theatres found ways to cater burlesque to the respectable bourgeoisie. Theatre managers promoted their offerings to middle-class tourists by removing sexual innuendo and references to drinking, lower-class subjects, and social satire. The 1860 production of Lucrezia Borgia! included more operatic numbers than previous performances, because it was assumed that the middle-class audience would have been familiar with continental opera. The English burlesque practice of interpolating various numbers grew out of the need to restructure and abridge Italian operas to fit English lyrics and audiences. Burlesques typically kept the arias with the most memorable melodies, while substituting dialogue for the action scenes and adding popular songs to increase interest. The production of Little Don Giovanni, although staged elaborately and requiring higher ticket prices, included a wide variety of numbers, including parlor songs and music-hall songs, reflecting the diverse nature of the English middle-class. The songs it used were those that listeners would have been able to play on the piano. Robert the Devil, on the other hand, drew mostly on operetta numbers. The juxtapositions of “high” and “low” music in mid-Victorian burlesque was intended for variety, and not as much for political commentary or satire. Tables describe the origins of every number in each of the three burlesques discussed.

Works: Anonymous: Lucrezia Borgia! (burlesque) (82-88, 91-95), Little Don Giovanni (88, 95-102), Robert the Devil (89, 102-6).

Sources: Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia (83); Mozart: Don Giovanni (88); Meyerbeer: Robert le diable (89).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Meredith Rigby

Chamber pieces in the eighteenth century were often arranged for two keyboard instruments (whether two pianos, or a piano/harpsichord combination). These arrangements were prized for their ability to create sympathetic connections between family members or between teachers and students through mutual understanding, shared sentiment, and common experience. The concepts of “original” and “arrangement” were very flexible at this time, and it was common for a single piece to exist in different versions for different instrumental combinations. It was often easier in a domestic or teaching situation to find two keyboardists rather than a larger number of other players. The practice originated in players simply reading different parts from the original score, or writing out their own keyboard arrangements. Players also combined various keyboard instruments including forte-piano, harpsichord, clavichord, and others to create new timbres and contrasts. Sympathy was fostered between student and teacher and between family members playing keyboard duos by performing the same physical gestures, and by arranging the keyboards toward each other so that they could see each other’s facial expressions.

Works: Anonymous: Keyboard-duo arrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio Sonata in E-flat Major, BWV 525 (189-92, 208), Keyboard-duo arrangement of Johann Christian Bach, Quintets, Op. 11 (192-99).

Sources: Johann Sebastian Bach: Trio Sonata in E-flat Major, BWV 525 (189-92); Johann Christian Bach: Quintets, Op. 11 (192-99).

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Meredith Rigby

It is clear that Mendelssohn emulated Beethoven’s late string quartets, particularly the Op. 132 String Quartet in A Minor, in his String Quartet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 13. While he decided to explore certain compositional methods and techniques from Beethoven, he used them to further his own musical ideas in the piece. Op. 13 is more intense than Mendelssohn’s earlier works, but still conveys a different a mood than the Beethoven piece. Beethoven’s quartet is characterized by lack of stability and contradictory fragments, with the work’s narrative crisis somewhat resolved at the end. While Mendelssohn’s theme does not imitate the stops and starts of Beethoven’s, it resembles Beethoven’s theme in contour and harmonic ambiguity. Most of Mendelssohn’s themes are more complete and regular. However, he begins by morphing a single motive into the theme in a Beethoven-like manner. Like the Beethoven piece’s struggle between the march theme and the sustained theme, Mendelssohn’s piece also includes a contrapuntal tension between two themes. These characteristics of Beethoven’s late works were controversial in his time, and Mendelssohn’s more measured and structured interpretation of those elements in his Op. 13 was his own commentary on those works.

Works: Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 13.

Sources: Beethoven: String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132; Mendelssohn: Sinfonia in F Minor, Op. 11 (110-14).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Meredith Rigby

During the rise of the violin concerto as a virtuosic showpiece, militaristic musical topics and virtuoso codes of performance were combined to create the overall impression of the violinist as a hero, a symbol of military power. Many composers, including Haydn and Beethoven, incorporated ideas from military bands or revolutionary songs into their instrumental works because these borrowings were popular with audiences. Violin concertos, especially, began using elements such as the timpani, march topics and rhythms, and brass fanfares alongside brilliant technical passages, highlighting the performer’s “victory” over the challenges. This practice originated in the French concertos of the late eighteenth century, which were often quasi-programmatic, suggesting peacetime military exercises with the violin “commanding” the orchestral army. The violin bow also became symbolic of a sword. Performers cultivated their heroic image by staging violin “duels” or imitating famous generals such as Napoleon. Inherent in these views was the cultivation of the violin as an essentially masculine instrument; symbolic language surrounding the violin often had violent connotations, and it was seen as inappropriate for a woman to play it.

Works: Charles de Beriot: March (91), Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 16 (93-94); Paganini: Violin Concerto No. 3 in E Major, MS 50 (93, 96), Violin Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 6 (95); Karol Lipinski: Concerto Militaire (93-95); Rodolphe Kreutzer: Violin Concerto No. 14 in E Major (93-94); Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 (95); Luigi Boccherini: String Quartet in D Minor, G. 172 (102-3); Giovanni Battista Viotti: Violin Concerto No. 2 in E Major (103).

Sources: Charles-Simon Catel: “Marche guerrière” from Sémiramis (102).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Meredith Rigby

An assimilative allusion is an allusion that endorses the musical and poetic sense of the earlier passage. The practice of using quotations from earlier pieces to evoke the same mood or meaning began in the late-eighteenth century with Haydn and Mozart, and continued to Wagner. Beethoven borrowed a motif from Reichardt’s Ino depicting family love in his “Archduke” trio, which he told the Countess Guicciardi was about him embracing her family. Some pieces, like Schubert’s Mass in A-flat and his song Der Doppelgänger were composed simultaneously using the same material, so that each work adds to the meaning of the other. Haydn used assimilative allusion in some of his works, but in others he used allusions wittily, the way Schumann did. Liszt alluded to either a Schubert song or an opera by Chelard in his Faust-Symphonie; Wagner in turn incorporated a motive from the Faust-Symphonie into Die Walküre. Wagner’s opinions on Faust also influence the plot of the opera, particularly moments such as the downfall of the gods and Wotan’s inability to recognize the truth. Although people often speak of Wagner’s borrowing in regards to the texts or stories of his works, he used musical allusions as well; Tristan’s death scene in Tristan und Isolde, for instance, uses a theme from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, which had been described by contemporaries as depicting death.

Works: Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97 (46-48); Mozart: Piano Concerto in A Major, K.488 (48); Carl Maria von Weber: Mass in E-flat, Op. 75 (51); Schubert: Mass in A-flat Major, D.678 (51-52); Haydn: Mass in B-flat Major, Hob. XXII/13 (52-53); Beethoven: Fidelio (54-57); Liszt: Faust-Symphonie (57); Wagner: Die Walküre (57-63), Tristan und Isolde (63-66).

Sources: Friedrich Reichardt: Ino (46-48); Carl Maria von Weber: Der Freischütz (51); Schubert: “Der Doppelgänger” from Schwanengesang, D.957 (51-52); Haydn: The Creation (52-53); Mozart: The Magic Flute (54); Beethoven: Vestas Feuer (54); Haydn: Abendlied zu Gott, Hob. XXVc:9 (54-55); Mozart: Abendempfindung, K.523 (56-57); Schubert: Szene aus Goethes Faust, D.126 (57-58); Andre-Hippolite Chelard: Macbeth (57-58); Liszt: Faust-Symphonie (57-61); Marschner: Hans Heiling (62); Robert Schumann: Abschied vom Walde, Op. 89, No. 4 (63); Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 (63-66).

Index Classifications: 1700s, 1800s

Contributed by: Meredith Rigby

Siegfried Ochs claimed that Brahms had made it clear to him that the second movement of his Ein deutsches Requiem had been based on a chorale tune, “Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten,” yet analysis reveals that the rhythm and pitches of the melodies are quite different. Christopher Reynolds has recently argued that it is in fact based on a different chorale tune. If one compares the movement with a piano piece by M. Jessen that explicitly takes its melody from the chorale, Brahms’s use of it in the Requiem becomes more doubtful. In fact, treatises of the time suggested that composers wishing to write a successful funeral march should make it sound chorale-like. Therefore, it is highly possible that Brahms wrote the melody himself, merely emulating the general style of a chorale and not a specific chorale tune.

Works: Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem (8-9); M. Jessen: Wer seinen Gott allein läßt walten, Op. 6, No. 1 (9).

Sources: Georg Neumark: Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten.

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Meredith Rigby

In most of Brahms’s writings about variations, he privileged the older styles of Bach and Beethoven and techniques such as keeping the theme pure and using the bass line as the theme. In practice, however, he wrote variations that explored both these older styles and the newer fantasia styles of Schumann and others. In his variations, Brahms sought to reconcile old and new models by writing variation sets in pairs, each with a complementary theme from a different era or style. Brahms’s Op. 23 and Op. 24 Variations on Handel and Schumann themes form one such complementary pair. The two sets from Op. 21 differ in that the first has a newly-composed theme and the second a borrowed theme. The first also borrows the constant-harmony techniques with only occasional melodic references that characterized Beethoven’s “Eroica” Variations, Op. 35, while the second recalls Beethoven’s WoO 80 in its eight-bar theme and group of opposite mode variations (where the theme goes into the bass). Brahms’s Op. 9 Variations do not have a pair of individual variations pieces, but contain a synthesis of traditions and an internal pairing or dual persona, marked by the labelling of slower, more introspective movements as “Brahms” and more energetic movements as “Kreisler.”

Works: Heinrich von Herzogenberg: Variations on a Theme of Brahms, Op. 23 (136-38); Brahms: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel, Op. 24 (141-43), Variations on a Theme of Schumann, Op. 23 (141-43), Variations, Op. 21, Nos. 1 and 2 (144-45), Variations on a Theme of Schumann, Op. 9 (145), String Sextet in G Major, Op. 36 (149-51), String Quintet in G Major, Op. 111 (152-53).

Sources: Beethoven: Variations in C Minor, WoO 80 (144-45), Variations and Fugue in E-flat Major (“Eroica” Variations), Op. 35 (144-45).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Meredith Rigby

Although William Sterndale Bennett has often been described as an inferior derivative of Mendelssohn, most of the similarities between the two are superficial, and there are many original qualities in Bennett’s music. He was trained in the high classical tradition of Mozart, but his early piano pieces already show a unique penchant for chromaticism and unusual textures, such as placing the second subject in the tenor voice. Several early works are more akin to Schumann’s style; in fact, Schumann alluded to Bennett’s compositions in at least three of his pieces and may have been influenced by some of his stylistic traits. While many of Bennett’s shorter piano works, and even his sonata, contain resemblances to certain textures, passages, and forms of Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte, these similarities are juxtaposed with elements that are very unlike those of Mendelssohn. Some of Bennett’s unique elements include inverted pedal points, which he may have learned about from Mozart or Schubert, but not Mendelssohn; evading the resolution of a dominant seventh; and harmonic anticipation.

Works: William Sterndale Bennett: Six Studies in the Form of Capriccios, Op. 11 (178-80), Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 13 (180-81), Three Romances, Op. 14 (182).

Sources: Felix Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 19, No. 4 (179), Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 38, No. 6 (180-81).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Meredith Rigby

Many of William Sterndale Bennett’s piano pieces contain allusions to Mendelssohn’s music, which serve both to situate Bennett within a certain style, and also to provide intertextual meaning. His cantata Woman of Samaria is modeled on Mendelssohn’s Elijah. Many of his short piano pieces, such as the Impromptus and Romanzas, borrow from Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte. The Impromptu, Op. 12, No. 2, for example, reflects the opening texture of Mendelssohn’s Caprice, Op. 16, No. 3: both containing a flowing soprano melody with alto accompaniment in the right hand, while the left hand has slower-moving tenor and bass parts. The rising melody in the second phrase of the piece is also a reworking of a melody from Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 2, Op. 14. Bennett’s Romanza, Op. 14, No. 2 clearly borrows many textural, melodic, harmonic, and formal elements from Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 38, No. 6, including a passage with duet texture. Bennett’s piano sonata, which is dedicated to Mendelssohn and was written on the occasion of his wedding to Cecile, contains many allusions to the Lieder ohne Worte and other pieces. It includes alternations of major and minor passages, and several duet passages reminiscent of Mendelssohn’s Op. 38, No. 6. It also features a reworking of the melody from Mendelssohn’s Op. 19, No. 5 in the finale. The romantic connotations evoked by these allusions create a personalized love song through the sonata.

Works: William Sterndale Bennett: Woman of Samaria (101), Three Impromptus, Op. 12 (102-3), Romanzas, Op. 14 (103-6), Piano Sonata in F Minor, Op. 13 (107-16).

Sources: Mendelssohn: Elijah (101), Lieder ohne Worte, Op 19, No. 2 (102), String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 14 (103), Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 30, No. 1 (104), Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 38, No. 6 (105-6, 110-113), Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 30, No. 2 (114), Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 19, No. 5 (114), Overture, Op. 32 (115-117).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Meredith Rigby

Mahler’s first symphony borrows the “Inferno Motive” and the “Cross Motive” from Liszt’s Dante Symphony, the latter of which Liszt had adapted from the incipit of the Gregorian Magnificat. The Cross motive appears not only as a melody, but is also incorporated in both pieces into the harmony and structure. In the fourth movement of Mahler’s symphony, the main tonal areas correspond with the intervals of the motive, and the motivic progression throughout the movement concludes in the Cross motive becoming “thematicized” in the diatonic key. While Liszt and Mahler used the motive for different musical purposes in their pieces, their attitudes toward reworking it were similar to the philosophies of Wilhelm Dilthey. Dilthey claimed that the past is fundamentally a point of reproduction, and that the possibilities of the future are forged out of a recognition of the past within the present; the present itself is “the moment filled with experience.” The chant tune, in Liszt’s hands, became a common, particular object, and when he transformed it in the Dante Symphony it became a general object; a similar transformation also happened when Mahler used the same chant tune. By reproducing Liszt, and thus the chant, Mahler was producing a future into which Liszt was carried.

Works: Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D Major; Liszt: Dante Symphony.

Sources: Liszt: Dante Symphony; Gregorian Chant: Magnificat.

Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: Meredith Rigby