A. Kori Hill
A few posts ago, we discussed signifyin(g): a formal process in Black music where older material is quoted and transformed into a new context. You can hear it in Ella Fitzgerald, Florence Price, William Grant Still, Sugarhill Gang, and many other works by Black composers and performers across genres. But what about other quotation practices? What are some other methods of quotation that engage with the reference to older musical material?
Often, when a classical composer quotes an older piece of music to turn that material into something new, that composer would write a variation on that older composer’s melody OR a series of variations on the composer’s own melody. This form is called theme and variation. First, you hear the full statement of the theme. Then, you move through several short episodes where the theme is altered. Maybe the rhythm is different; maybe the melody is hidden within the texture. Or maybe it’s in a different key or mode, D major instead of B minor, or A minor instead of E major.
One of the popular examples of a composer writing a theme and variations on a melody by an older composer is Johannes Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Haydn. Written for orchestra in 1873, Variations has eight variations and a finale, allowing us to hear Brahms’ spin on an original melody at the time believed to be Haydn’s – now scholars are not so sure. It is sometimes called St. Anthony Variations, due to the theme Brahms encountered in the original score carrying the label “Chorale St. Anthoni.”
Another musical form that lends itself to quotation is the fantasia, or fantasy. Stemming from the Renaissance period and developed from improvisatory practices, a fantasia grows from the development and transformation of a melody, which can be original or from an older composer. This is what Ralph Vaughan Wiliams did with Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. The work is built upon Tallis’ “Why fum’th in fight” which he wrote for the Archbishop Canterbury Psalter in 1567 for use in church services.
Like Brahms, Vaughan Williams doesn’t tell us which Tallis song he’s building his piece upon.
But we are told in his Fantasia on Greensleeves, which isn’t only his: he allowed Ralph Greaves to arrange for orchestra “Alas, My Love, You Do Me Wrong,” from Vaughan Williams’ Sir John in Love, which is built upon the 16th century English folk song “Greensleeves.” When you hear it, it may sound similar to the Christmas carol, “What Child is This?” by William Chatterton Dix.
This takes us to another important practice that merges quotation and signifyin(g): contrafactum. This word is just a way of saying you’ve put new words to an old melody. This practice extends far back into the medieval period, and we have examples that we still sing today.
Like “What Child is This?” is a contrafact of “Greensleeves,” so is “Battle Hymn of the Republic” by Julia Ward Howe a contrafact of “John Brown’s Body,” which is itself a contrafact of a camp meeting song, which was notated (but not composed!) by William Steffe.
Ultimately, quotation in classical music is a way for composers to intimately engage with past works and for us to hear the ways music is understood, recontextualized, and becomes new again.
If you could compose something new from a pre-existing melody, what would you use? Would you set it in a theme and variation? A fantasia? Or would it be a contrafact?
A few posts ago, we discussed signifyin(g): a formal process in Black music where older material is quoted and transformed into a new context. You can hear it in Ella Fitzgerald, Florence Price, William Grant Still, Sugarhill Gang, and many other works by Black composers and performers across genres. But what about other quotation practices? What are some other methods of quotation that engage with the reference to older musical material?
Often, when a classical composer quotes an older piece of music to turn that material into something new, that composer would write a variation on that older composer’s melody OR a series of variations on the composer’s own melody. This form is called theme and variation. First, you hear the full statement of the theme. Then, you move through several short episodes where the theme is altered. Maybe the rhythm is different; maybe the melody is hidden within the texture. Or maybe it’s in a different key or mode, D major instead of B minor, or A minor instead of E major.
One of the popular examples of a composer writing a theme and variations on a melody by an older composer is Johannes Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Haydn. Written for orchestra in 1873, Variations has eight variations and a finale, allowing us to hear Brahms’ spin on an original melody at the time believed to be Haydn’s – now scholars are not so sure. It is sometimes called St. Anthony Variations, due to the theme Brahms encountered in the original score carrying the label “Chorale St. Anthoni.”
Another musical form that lends itself to quotation is the fantasia, or fantasy. Stemming from the Renaissance period and developed from improvisatory practices, a fantasia grows from the development and transformation of a melody, which can be original or from an older composer. This is what Ralph Vaughan Wiliams did with Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. The work is built upon Tallis’ “Why fum’th in fight” which he wrote for the Archbishop Canterbury Psalter in 1567 for use in church services.
Like Brahms, Vaughan Williams doesn’t tell us which Tallis song he’s building his piece upon.
But we are told in his Fantasia on Greensleeves, which isn’t only his: he allowed Ralph Greaves to arrange for orchestra “Alas, My Love, You Do Me Wrong,” from Vaughan Williams’ Sir John in Love, which is built upon the 16th century English folk song “Greensleeves.” When you hear it, it may sound similar to the Christmas carol, “What Child is This?” by William Chatterton Dix.
This takes us to another important practice that merges quotation and signifyin(g): contrafactum. This word is just a way of saying you’ve put new words to an old melody. This practice extends far back into the medieval period, and we have examples that we still sing today.
Like “What Child is This?” is a contrafact of “Greensleeves,” so is “Battle Hymn of the Republic” by Julia Ward Howe a contrafact of “John Brown’s Body,” which is itself a contrafact of a camp meeting song, which was notated (but not composed!) by William Steffe.
Ultimately, quotation in classical music is a way for composers to intimately engage with past works and for us to hear the ways music is understood, recontextualized, and becomes new again.
If you could compose something new from a pre-existing melody, what would you use? Would you set it in a theme and variation? A fantasia? Or would it be a contrafact?
