From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Musical quotation is the practice of directly
quoting another work in a new composition. The quotation may be
from the same composer's work (self-referential), or from a
different composer's work (appropriation).
Sometimes the quotation is done for the purposes of
characterization, as in Puccini's use of The Star-Spangled
Banner in reference to the American character Lieutenant
Pinkerton in his opera Madama Butterfly, or in
Tchaikovsky's use of the Russian and French national anthems in the
1812
Overture, which depicted a battle between the Russian and
French armies.
Sometimes, there is no explicit characterization involved, as in
Luciano Berio
using brief quotes from Gustav Mahler, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and others in his
Sinfonia.
Musical quotation is widely used in animated cartoons.
Quotation vs. variation
Musical quotation is to be distinguished from variation,
where a composer takes a theme (their own or another's) and writes
variations on it. In this case, the origin of the theme is usually
acknowledged in the title (e.g. Johannes Brahms's Variations on a Theme by Joseph
Haydn). In the case of quotations, there is usually no
explicit acknowledgment. However, it sometimes appears in the
score. For example, in Schumann's Carnaval, in the section
"Florestan" he quotes a theme from his earlier work Papillons, Op. 2, and
the inscription "(Papillon?)" is written underneath the notes. In
the final section "Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistins",
he again quotes the same theme, but without acknowledgement. In
that final section, he also quotes another theme first used in
Papillons, the traditional Grossvater Tanz (Grandfather
Dance), but this time the inscription is "Thème du XVIIème
siècle".
Examples
Examples of musical quotations in classical music include:
- Arnold Bax quoted
a theme from Richard Wagner's opera Tristan und
Isolde in his 1919 symphonic poem Tintagel[1]
- Alban Berg quoted
Johann Sebastian Bach's chorale
Es ist genug (It is enough) at the end of his Violin Concerto
- Georges
Bizet used a song "El Arreglito" by Sebastián
Iradier as the basis for the "Habanera" (L'amour est un oiseau
rebelle) in his opera Carmen, believing it to be an anonymous
folk song. When he discovered its true author, who had died only
ten years earlier, he made an acknowledgment in the vocal
score.
- Benjamin
Britten quoted many other works (e.g., Wagner's "Tristan chord") in
his opera Albert Herring
- Claude
Debussy quoted the opening of Tristan und Isolde
disparagingly in the Golliwogg's Cakewalk from his
Children's Corner suite for
piano
- Sir Edward
Elgar quoted The First Nowell and some of his
own earlier music in The Starlight Express
- Umberto
Giordano quoted the French national anthem La
Marseillaise in his opera Andrea
Chénier
- Charles Ives
was particularly fond of quoting other composers' themes in his
works. They can be found in works such as Three Places in New
England and his Piano Sonata No. 2
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart quoted
a theme by his recently deceased mentor Johann
Christian Bach in his Piano Concerto No.
12
- Giacomo
Puccini quoted the U.S. national anthem The Star-Spangled Banner
in his opera Madama Butterfly
- Robert
Schumann quoted La Marseillaise in his song The
Two Grenadiers and his Carnival Jest from
Vienna; he also quoted two themes from his Papillons, Op. 2
in his later work Carnaval, Op. 9 (one of which
was the traditional Grossvater Tanz)
- Dmitri Shostakovich - various
examples (detail to come)
- Richard
Strauss quoted the funeral march from Beethoven's Eroica symphony (No.
3) in his Metamorphosen for 23 solo
strings
- Strauss used many quotes from his own works in his symphonic
poem Ein
Heldenleben
- Strauss quoted Luigi
Denza's song Funiculì, Funiculà in his
symphonic poem Aus
Italien, believing it was a folk song
- Sir Arthur
Sullivan did quote actual melodies by Franz Schubert and Johann
Sebastian Bach, but he was more adept at deliberately imitating
the styles of other composers without actually quoting their works.
The styles of Bellini, Bizet, Donizetti, Dvořák, Gounod, Handel,
Liszt, Mendelssohn, Rossini, Verdi, Wagner and others can all be
found in his works.
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
quoted the Russian national anthem (God Save The
Tsar!), La Marseillaise, a Russian Orthodox
plainchant (God Preserve Thy People), and some Russian
folk songs, in his 1812 Overture. He used folk material
in other compositions, such as the 4th Symphony and the 1st Piano Concerto.
He quoted the traditional Grossvater Tanz in Act I of The
Nutcracker
- Ralph Vaughan Williams quoted
the theme from the Epilogue of the third movement of Arnold Bax's Symphony
No. 3 in his Concerto
for Two Pianos and Orchestra.[1]
- Henryk
Wieniawski quoted Alexander Varlamov's song The
Red Sarafan in his fantasy for violin and piano, Souvenir
de Moscow, Op. 6 (possibly believing it was a folk song).
The Gregorian plainchant melody Dies Irae has been quoted by Charles-Valentin Alkan, Johannes
Brahms, Benjamin Britten, Joseph Haydn, Franz Liszt, Modest
Mussorgsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Igor Stravinsky
and many other composers in their works.
Quotation is also a tradition in jazz performance, especially of the bebop era. Charlie Parker,
for instance, quoted Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in his
solo on "Repetition", and "Country Gardens" on his Verve recording
of "Lover Man"; Dizzy Gillespie quotes David Raksin's
"Laura" on "Hot House" during the Massey Hall concert. Dexter Gordon and
Sonny Rollins
are especially famed among jazz fans for their addiction to
quotation. Often the use of musical quotation has an ironic edge,
whether the musician is aiming for an amusing juxtaposition or is
making a more pointed commentary (as when a youthful Rollins,
playing alongside Charlie Parker on Miles Davis's Collector's Items,
throws in a snippet of "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better," or
when the avant-garde saxophonist Ornette Coleman rebuffs a skeptical
heckler at the Croydon Hall concert with a snippet of the jazz
standard "Cherokee").
Sources
See also
Wikis
Quiz
Search