Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Borrowing in music'

This thesis examines the relationships between popular contemporary musical styles and classic-era art music. Analysis of pop-rock songs, and their referential treatment in art rock, classical music, and society will be examined. Pop-rock musicians borrow from the masters of the past and from each other. Rock guitarists such as Eddie Van Halen employ a virtuosic technique suggestive of Liszt and Paganini. The group Rush borrowed freely from opera seria. Frank Zappa referenced contemporary musicians as well as classical techniques. Referential treatment in popular music and the recent advancements in technology, have challenged copyright law. How these treatments and technologies affect copyright legislators and musicians will be discussed.

American composer Andrew Rindfleisch (b. 1963) has contributed twenty-one pieces to the repertoire of contemporary choral literature to date. His works have been commissioned, premiered, and recorded by notable choral ensembles and performed in significant venues around the country. Influenced by his own early choral singing experience in his native Wisconsin, much of Rindfleisch’s choral music is infused with influences of the music of earlier composers and choral idioms. With these works, Rindfleisch participates in a long-standing trend in choral composition of looking to the musical past for inspiration and procedure while writing in a contemporary harmonic vocabulary, and his efforts can be evaluated through the lens of a study of musical borrowing. Through a case study of five of Rindfleisch’s choral works – “In manus tuas,” “Mille regretz,” “Psalm,” “Anthem,” and “Graue Liebesschlangen” – this document identifies common characteristics of Rindfleisch’s choral music and demonstrates his uses of musical borrowing and allusion. The influence of Renaissance polyphony, Debussy, Brahms, and German expressionism is revealed.

Ruth Schonthal (1924-2006) was a Jewish-American composer and educator of German birth. She studied with Paul Hindemith at Yale University, yet would eventually reject his compositional style. She favored incorporating and transforming the music of the European tradition, and claimed inspiration from Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Bartók, Scriabin, and Rachmaninoff. Her piano works incorporate and transform borrowed materials from those composers with her own compositional style.

This document analyzes Schonthal's musical borrowing techniques present in selected piano works. I provide a biographical portrait of Schonthal in the first chapter along with her achievements and stylistic influences. The following four chapters are devoted to three musical borrowing techniques that Schonthal employed: modeling, setting, and patchwork. Modeling is divided into two chapters. The first examines her modeling of Romantic piano literature, and the second focuses on modeling pedagogical repertoire. I have employed J. Peter Burkholder's typology of musical borrowing as the foundation for my study.

This topic is important because Schonthal's piano compositions are underrepresented in contemporary piano literature. Her focus on traditional forms ran counter to many of her contemporaries, yet in focusing on the music of the past, she was able to develop a mature compositional style that maintains relevance today. My aim is to provide an insight into Schonthal's mature compositional style and how musical borrowing influenced that style.

Music travels across the past in the form of composers borrowing from each other. Such musical borrowings and quotations involve not only the use of melodic materials but also musical structures, texts, symbolism and other types of inspiration. The pre-existing musical idea being used is linked to a specific memory of a particular composer and time. The artistic allusions of composers connect the present and the past. Music also travels across the present and into the future. The outcome of contemporary composers borrowing from each other influences the present period and affects later composers' musical inspiration, i.e., it affects future composers, and therefore, the future. Composers frequently refer to melodies or musical idea from contemporaries and reinterpret them in their own compositions. This is largely because composers do not write in isolation and have been inspired and influenced by contemporary musicians and cultural contexts. However, these musical borrowings sometimes raise questions about the composers' creativity and authenticity. This is largely due to the nature of inspiration and imagination, which determines who or what is original. With this in mind, why do composers still borrow musical ideas despite the risks involved? In what ways do they overcome criticism and demonstrate the excellence of their own compositions while referring to the work of others? In what ways do artistic allusions influence new compositions? In this dissertation, I attempt to examine these questions and address the reasons for and the effects of musical quotations and allusions.

In Victorian Britain, music circulating libraries libraries operated by music publishers Novello & Co. and Augener & Co. supported upper- and upper-middle-class patrons in their pursuit of cultural capital that would help them perform their socioeconomic status. Studying these libraries in the context of domestic music-making reveals the economic and social impact of these libraries in the lives of amateur musicians and in the music publishing industry. An analysis of the account books in the Novello Business Archives demonstrates that the direct income that Novello & Co., Ltd.'s Universal Circulating Musical Library generated was negligible at best. Yet the fact that the library continued to be part of the business for over forty years indicates that Novello & Co., Ltd. found it to be profitable in some way. In this case, the library could have helped the publisher to attract customers through branding and advertising, in addition to informing publishing decisions by tracking demand. Catalogs for music circulating libraries, as well as for the publishers who owned them, contain lists of library and publisher inventory and pricing. Studying changes in these catalogs reveals how patrons' tastes changed over time. A case study of violin-piano duets in multiple catalogs confirms a continued preference for continental composers over British composers, and another case study of violin-piano duets by Felix Mendelssohn shows a growing taste for arrangements of pieces originally composed for large ensemble. Changing tastes had an effect not only on what music Victorians performed, but also on what pieces publishers offered, and, ultimately, on works' places in the canon.

'Musical borrowing in hip-hop' begins with a crucial premise: the hip-hop world, as an imagined community, regards unconcealed intertextuality as integral to the production and reception of its artistic culture. In other words, borrowing, in its multidimensional forms and manifestations, is central to the aesthetics of hip-hop. This study of borrowing in hip-hop music, which transcends narrow discourses on 'sampling' (digital sampling), illustrates the variety of ways that one can borrow from a source text or trope, and ways that audiences identify and respond to these practices. Another function of this thesis is to initiate a more nuanced discourse in hip-hop studies, to allow for the number of intertextual avenues travelled within hip-hop recordings, and to present academic frameworks with which to study them. The following five chapters provide case studies that prove that musical borrowing, part and parcel of hip-hop aesthetics, occurs on multiple planes and within myriad dimensions. These case studies include borrowing from the internal past of the genre (Ch. 1), the use of jazz and its reception as an 'art music' within hip-hop (Ch. 2), borrowing and mixing intended for listening spaces such as the automobile (Ch. 3), sampling the voice of rap artists posthumously (Ch. 4), and sampling and borrowing as lineage within the gangsta rap subgenre (Ch. 5). By no means are the case studies intended to be exhaustive, but they provide examples which demonstrate that a thorough study of musical borrowing in hip-hop requires attention to the texts (hip-hop recordings), their reception, and wider cultural contexts.

Connections between athletes and musicians have been drawn recently by scholars, sports psychologists, and musicians. Literature on these connections, however, has focused on individuals rather than exploring connections between teams and ensembles. The broad goal of our study was to determine whether leadership roles like those observed in sports research emerge in chamber music ensembles. We chose to focus on connecting the literatures of leadership in sports and music by using a questionnaire drawn from sports research (Fransen, et al., 2014) in a chamber music setting. Fransen’s model was designed to measure the emergence of four leadership roles (Task, Social, Motivational, and External) in teams. In our study, fifty local musicians responded to an online questionnaire derived from Fransen (2014). We found that all four of Fransen’s leadership roles were identified by respondents as present in chamber ensembles. Respondents were also asked to describe leadership roles in their ensemble that did not fit Fransen’s four leadership roles, where such existed. From their responses, we postulate the roles of “organizational leader” and “leader by example” in chamber ensembles. We interpreted the organizational leader to be an extension of Fransen’s “external leadership” role. We interpret he leader by example role to be a set of attributes as predictors of shared leadership in individuals, rather than as a separate leadership role. In light of our findings, we offer suggestions for improving the functioning of chamber ensembles and for future research in this topic.

Duo Chopinesque by Michael Hennagin and Chameleon Music by Dan Welcher represent two of the most significant percussion ensemble compositions written in the last twenty years. Both works are written for the mostly mallet type of percussion ensemble wherein the keyboard instruments predominate. However, the most unique aspect of these two pieces is their use of musical quotation. Duo Chopinesque borrows Chopin's Prelude in E minor in its entirety, while Chameleon Music borrows portions from four Mozart Sonatas. This paper places each work within the history of the percussion ensemble, and in the larger history of musical quotation in the twentieth century. In addition, the compositional characteristics of both works are examined with particular emphasis on each composer's use of borrowed material from the music of Mozart and Chopin. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between quoted material and newly composed rhythmic motives.

The songs of Puccini provide another approach to understanding the composer's musical development. The objective of the study is twofold; first to provide a discussion of the musical style of Puccini's songs; and second, to show how Puccini utilized and integrated the preexistent material into the operas. The songs are grouped and characterized in three stylistic periods. In each period, Puccini was concerned with different issues in text setting. They anticipated or corresponded to the musical style of his operas, and this is evident by his use of the earlier songs in the later operas. Three examples of such cases are examined. The details involved in the transformation of self-borrowing are illustrated in terms of recomposition, expansion of the vocal line and orchestration. Each case illustrates the textual and/or musical consideration by Puccini of the original source for the new dramatic context of the opera. The borrowed material, often incorporated with new themes and expressive orchestration, blooms as an effective dramatic piece of music in his operas. In addition to the lecture recital, based on the dissertation and given on June 23, 1997, three other public recitals were performed. The first, on February 27, 1989, included works of Schubert, Brahms, Wolf, and Strauss. The second program, an operatic performance of The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky, was given on April 20, 1991. The third recital was performed on February 20, 1995, and included works by Handel, Mozart, Stravinsky, Schubert, Poulenc, and Turina.

Christopher Rouse (b. 1949), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his Trombone Concerto (1993) and a Grammy award for his Concerto de Gaudi (1999), has come to the forefront as one of America's most prominent orchestral composers. Several of Rouse's works feature quotations of and strong allusions to other composers' works that are used both rhetorically and structurally. These borrowings range from a variety of different genres and styles of works, from Claudio Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea to Jay Ferguson's "Thunder Island." Due to the more accessible filtering and funneling methods of musical borrowings (proliferation of mass media), the weighty discourses attached to them, and their variety of functions (critiquing canons, engaging in an allusive tradition, etc.), quotation has become elevated to the most prominent of musical actors that trigger narrative listening strategies, which in turn have a stronger role in the formation of narratives about music as well as narratives of music. The primary aim of this study is to adapt and apply more recent methodological narrativity frameworks to selected instrumental compositions by Rouse containing quotations, suggesting that their manner of insertion, their method of disclosure, and their referential potential can benefit from being examined through various narrative lenses as well as reveal their participation in certain roles of narrative functions. For this study, I have chosen six instrumental works by Rouse for examination - the Violoncello Concerto, Symphony No. 1, Iscariot, String Quartet No. 2, Seeing, and Thunderstuck. On a more specific level, the aim of this study is to investigate the manner, meaning, and motive of the quoted material in a select group of Rouse's compositions through various narratological lenses. To accomplish this, I intend 1) to establish a context for understanding the musical borrowing procedures of Rouse; 2) to explore how works containing quotations can be examined through various narrativity frameworks; 3) to inspect the ways in which borrowings can enhance or clarify the structural design and stylistic musical features for which he is known; 4) to investigate the various meanings that are generated from his borrowings; 5) to consider the extent to which Rouse's musical borrowings comment on various discourses, and 6) to examine the psychological needs of certain narratives triggered by quotation and the various questions they pose. This study does not attempt to systematically unify the works of Rouse that contain borrowings under a kind of "grand theory" in narrativity or borrowing studies, but rather to examine each work individually, noting the particular roles that borrowings play in regards to narratives of and about music. Fundamentally, I claim that narrativizing about music is a foundational psychological and social impulse, aiding to serve our curiosities about music's otherness qualities. Using both narratives of and about music to frame analyses, I hope to make a small contribution to the growing methodological frameworks of narrativity by featuring works containing borrowings by one individual composer, suggesting that other comprehensive approaches in borrowing studies can used for future composers.

Paganini's 24th caprice still remains to this day one of the most celebrated themes in classical music history. Many composers have used this theme to create variations and each composer attempted to produce stylistically unique variations on this piece. Hamelin's Variations on a Theme of Paganini stands out because his piece incorporates musical borrowing and many different composers' styles. His variations integrate music from different centuries, using pastiche and musical borrowing from figures such as Beethoven, Liszt, Brahms, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff. More provocatively, Hamelin's variations reach outside of Classical music, even adopting elements from salsa and friska. The spectrum of composers and styles included in this set are so radical and shocking that it creates a parody of not only Paganini's theme, but also the tradition of theme and variation pieces it has inspired. Due to its multiple variations juxtaposing extremely different styles, Hamelin's Variations on a Theme of Paganini presents the listener with a musical puzzle that is designed to invoke surprise. The juxtapositions of extremely different styles in these variations create disjointed variations with polystylism. The polystylism in this work diversifies his variations, while unifying these seemingly unbalanced movements through broad musical references. As such, both performers and listeners stand to benefit from a detailed, critical examination of the piece. I consider not just the musical sources themselves, but also the ways in which they interact, paying close attention to Hamelin's use of parody and humor.

In this thesis I investigate transformational practices in the secular music of mid-fifteenth-century German sources. At the heart of the research are case studies of the Lochamer Liederbuch with its two sections - a song and a keyboard collection - and of the newly discovered Wolfenbüttel Lute Tablature. By analysing and comparing the different versions of pieces surviving in these and related sources I explore how they interacted and what the motivations and techniques behind their transformation were. The organist and lute player Conrad Paumann and his 'School' were central driving forces in this process, which led to numerous innovations, particularly in the development of instrumental music and its notation. I then investigate the question of the instrumental accompaniment of monophonic song and how the development of new instruments and techniques influenced and shaped the melody types in the late medieval sources. To do this, I consult the genre of Neidhart songs as an oeuvre of secular song that was cultivated and transmitted in sources from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. The network of interdependencies between repertoires enables an analysis of transformational practices in the songs of Oswald von Wolkenstein, which are influenced by the Neidhart-genre. The analysis comes full circle with reworkings of his melodies in the Lochamer Liederbuch and related sources. The study shows that vocal music and instrumental intabulations influenced each other mutually to create new repertoires and styles. Amongst the most significant insights are the findings around the WolfenbÃ1⁄4ttel Lute Tablature, which open up a field of hitherto unknown instrumental practices and playing techniques, particularly on the plectrum lute. The process of transferring intabulation techniques from the keyboard to other polyphonic instruments leads to the formulation of a coherent, 'pan-instrumental' style of solo intabulation in the fifteenth century.

O presente estudo tem como objetivo principal dar um contributo no âmbito do uso de código musical pré-existente complexo em contextos criativos, propondo uma sistematização na abordagem composicional. A razão do interesse pela criação de uma obra musical usando material alheio, de forma a este não ser relacionado com a sua fonte, começou desde o início dos estudos superiores, no âmbito da composição musical. Querer debruçar-se e aprofundar a obra do compositor Jorge Peixinho (1940- 1995), visto este ter sido um pioneiro em Portugal na segunda metade do séc. XX, ao reunir diversas fontes alheias numa mesma obra, ou seja, redes intertextuais, prendeuse com o facto de este identificar nos seus textos o uso de diversas fontes alheias, e, auditivamente, estas consistirem num reconhecimento de forma verdadeiramente enigmática. O próprio Peixinho identificava este fenómeno como procura de uma “espécie de vínculos secretos”, interagindo com o material, através de técnicas e/ou sistemas arquitetónicos de forma musicalmente intricada e pouco explícita, com o intuito de alcançar como objetivo último a aplicação personalizada desta ideia na própria obra. A existência de uma pluralidade de técnicas e abordagens composicionais com o uso de material pré-existente que não só lhe concede um papel complexo, mas, recapitulando o pensamento de Peter Szendy, apresenta igualmente uma discussão epistemológica e musicológica de grande atualidade (2001). Assim sendo, e partindo de uma revisão bibliográfica prévia, foi possível refletir, elaborar, aplicar e promover uma proposta taxonómica de reutilização musical. Partido do princípio que todas as obras musicais dialogam com o seu passado de forma consciente ou inconsciente por parte do criador, a questão orientadora à qual a presente investigação pretendeu dar resposta foi a seguinte: como pode o compositor aplicar material alheio e diversificado numa mesma composição original de forma consciente, de maneira a que este se torne irreconhecível e não cause desequilíbrio ou instabilidade na própria obra? Tendo em conta a natureza do contexto, a problemática, as questões de estudo e os objetivos enunciados, optou-se por uma perspetiva não convencional da investigação, na procura de novos territórios do avanço do conhecimento científico através da implementação de novo conhecimento refletindo sobre a própria prática artística, uma Practice-Based Research (Hasar, A., et al., 2009). Este projeto pretendeu incluir o artista e o cientista no percurso analítico, utilizando uma direção metodológica que se apoia na observação como participante, na qual o próprio observador participa e reflete igualmente sobre a sua atividade. O percurso metodológico teve a intenção de entrelaçar o conhecimento alcançado ao examinar um conjunto de obras de Jorge Peixinho identificadas no corpus analítico, nas quais a problemática em causa se encontra em evidência. Ao nível prático, procurou analisar e sintetizar o conhecimento teórico obtido no campo analítico, facultando e inspirando uma proposta de uma prática original, direcionada para a questão orientadora deste estudo. As oito obras musicais apresentadas pretenderam inventar as “maneiras” (Nunes, 2011) de Nuno Peixoto de Pinho, enquanto compositor, demonstrando um crescimento contínuo e solidificação das diferentes técnicas e aproximações idiomáticas que se relacionam direta ou indiretamente com as mesmas observadas na obra de Peixinho. Este foi o responsável por proporcionar ao autor-investigador a ocasião de pôr em prática sugestões de pensamento artístico singular, sempre influenciado por inevitáveis e justificados epígonos.
The present study seeks to ascertain the effectiveness of pre-existent complex musical code in creative contexts, proposing systematization in the compositional approach. The artist’s interest in creating a musical piece based on others’ material, with a view to ensuring that it cannot be connected with its source, dates from the beginning of higher education in the context of musical composition. The desire to address and deepen the work of the composer Jorge Peixinho (1940-1995), a pioneer during the second half of the twentieth century in Portugal, when he chose to gather several outside sources in the same work, namely intertextual networks, is directly related to the fact that he identifies the application of several outside sources in his texts, and aurally, these consist in a truly enigmatic recognition form. Peixinho himself identified this phenomenon as searching for “some kind of secret bonds”, interacting with the material through several techniques and/or architectural systems of intricate and non-explicit musical forms, with the purpose of achieving the ultimate objective of customizing the application of this idea in the work itself. The existence of a plurality of techniques and compositional approaches resorting to the use of pre-existing material, not only bestows it a complex role, but recapping Peter Szendy’s thoughts, equally presents an extremely topical (2001) epistemological and musicological discussion. Therefore, and based on a previous bibliographical review, it was possible to reflect, elaborate, implement and promote a taxonomic proposal of musical reuse. Based on the assumption that every musical work dialogues with its past consciously or unconsciously through the hand of its composer, the leading question to which the present research intended to attain an answer, was the following: how is it possible for a composer to consciously include outside and diverse material in the same original composition, and in such a manner that it becomes unrecognizable and does not cause imbalance and instability in the work itself? Taking into account the nature of the context, problem, study issues and the referred objectives, it was opted for an unconventional perspective of the research, exploiting new territory in the advancement of scientific knowledge, through the implementation of new data resulting from the reflection of our own artistic practise, a Practice-Based Research (Hasar, et al., 2009). This project sought to include the artist and the scientist in its analytical course, using a methodological approach which is based on the observation as a participant, and where the observer himself participates and equally reflects on his own activity. The methodological approach intended to intertwine the knowledge achieved by examining a set of Jorge Peixinho’s works identified in the analytical corpus, in which the issue in question was evident. At the practical level, it sought to analyse and synthesize the theoretical knowledge obtained in the analytical field, providing and inspiring the proposal of a unique practice, directed towards the leading question of this study. The eight submitted musical works intended to devise the “manners” (Nunes, 2011) of Nuno Peixoto de Pinho as a composer, reflecting a continued growth and consolidation of the different techniques and idiomatic approaches that are directly and indirectly related with those observed in Peixinho’s work. The composer was responsible for providing the author-researcher with the opportunity to implement suggestions of unique artistic thinking, always influenced by unavoidable and justified epigones.

La version intégrale de ce mémoire est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l’Université de Montréal (www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU).
Ce mémoire s’intéresse à la citation d’œuvres romantiques par le groupe rock britannique Muse, à partir d’une dizaine de chansons représentatives de son style. Bien qu’il ne soit pas rare qu’un groupe rock se base sur une œuvre antérieure pour écrire une nouvelle chanson, Muse constitue un cas particulier puisqu’il fait très peu usage de citations littérales. Cette étude s’inspire principalement des théories de Gérard Genette et de James Peter Burkholder et classe les emprunts en diverses catégories, dont l’allusion, la paraphrase, la citation programmatique, l’arrangement cumulatif et le modelage. Dans ce dernier cas, Muse assimile l’emprunt pour communiquer une coloration romantique à sa musique, à la manière d’un pastiche. Au moins cinq chansons du groupe évoquent le Deuxième Concerto pour piano de Rachmaninov, soit « Megalomania », « Ruled by Secrecy », « Space Dementia », « Butterflies and Hurricanes » et le prélude instrumental de « Survival ». Ce mémoire analyse aussi l’allusion au Premier Concerto pour piano de Tchaïkovski dans « Hoodoo », la paraphrase du thème de l’idée fixe de la Symphonie fantastique de Berlioz dans « Glorious » et la citation de l’opéra Samson et Dalila de Saint-Saëns dans « I Belong to You ». Ce procédé a un impact sur la réception des chansons. Ainsi, la coda de la chanson « United States of Eurasia » cherche à décrire l’état d’innocence menacé par la guerre en combinant des rires d’enfants au Nocturne op. 9 no 2 de Chopin, évoquant la nostalgie d’une époque révolue.
This thesis looks at the citation of Romantic works by the British rock group Muse, based on about ten songs representative of its style. While it is not uncommon for a rock band to use a previous work to write a new song, Muse constitutes a particular case since it makes very little use of literal citation. This study is based primarily on the theories of Gérard Genette and James Peter Burkholder and classifies the borrowings in various categories, including allusion, paraphrase, programmatic citation, cumulative arrangement and modeling. For example, with modeling, Muse assimilates the borrowing in order to communicate a Romantic dimension in its music, similar to a pastiche. At least five songs of the band evoke Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no. 2 : “Megalomania”, “Ruled by Secrecy”, “Space Dementia”, “Butterflies and Hurricanes” and the instrumental prelude to “Survival”. This thesis also analyses the allusion to Tchaïkovski’s Piano Concerto no. 1 in “Hoodoo”, the paraphrase of the idée fixe from Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique in “Glorious” and the citation of Saint-Saëns’ opera Samson and Delilah in “I Belong to You”. This technique has an impact on the songs’ reception. For example, the coda of the song “United States of Eurasia” seeks to describe the state of innocence threatened by war, by combining children’s laughter with Chopin’s Nocturne op. 9 no 2, thus evoking nostalgia of a bygone era.