Intertextuality and Music

The point of departure for this paper is Simon Gallot’s book about folkloristic inspirations in György Ligeti’s music, György Ligeti et la musique populaire, published in 2010. Gallot applies Béla Bartók’s categorization of the use of folk music to Ligeti’s folkloristic works. In his article “The Influence of Folk Music to the Art Music of Today,” Bartók differentiated between three ways of using elements of peasant music in art music: (1) “we may, for instance, take over a peasant melody unchanged or only slightly varied, write an accompaniment to it and possibly some opening and concluding phrases”; (2) “the composer does not make use of a real peasant melody but invents his own imitation of such melodies”; (3) “neither peasant melodies nor imitations of peasant melodies can be found in [the composer’s] music, but it is pervaded by the atmosphere of peasant music.”
Although the application of Bartók’s categories to Ligeti’s music can be useful from a philological point of view, it is nonetheless problematic for several reasons. According to what criteria can the influence of folk music be identified? Is it possible to make the evasive “atmosphere of peasant music” more tangible? And if so, how could Ligeti’s folklorisms be interpreted? While making an attempt to answer these questions, I point out why the identification and aesthetic interpretation of folkloristic influences are problematic in Ligeti’s music. In the concluding section, I demonstrate the complexity of folkloristic inspiration in Ligeti’s music by analysing two movements of the Sonata for Viola Solo (1991–4); my analysis includes an examination of their manuscript sources and their important intertextual links.

Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas Brasileiras demonstrates how the composer achieved his own Brazilian neoclassical style in a group of works, nine suites in total, that is arguably one of the best examples of homage to J.S. Bach’s music in the twentieth century. In this book, the corpus of Bachianas Brasileiras is contextualized and critically examined according to its structure and intertextual aspects, as well as its relationship to Bach’s music, Brazilian popular music, and other works by contemporaries of Villa Lobos. A range of musical examples illustrate instances of the selected topics in the works, encompassing urban Brazilian popular music such as the choro, Brazilian northeast and afro rhythms, and citation of folkloric melodies. Dudeque’s comprehensive examination of the Bachianas Brasileiras will be invaluable for scholars and researchers of music theory and analysis.

Este trabalho consiste na análise musical da Bachianas Brasileiras n. 2 (1930) de Heitor
Villa-Lobos por meio da intertextualidade. Observam-se as influências sofridas na obra
em questão levando em consideração o contexto musical e social no qual Villa-Lobos
estava inserido. Além da alusão à música barroca de Johann Sebastian Bach,
referenciada no título da obra, investiga-se a influência de elementos motívicos,
estilizações, apropriações, citações, paródias e paráfrases, de compositores
predecessores e contemporâneos a Villa-Lobos. O fenômeno intertextual na música é
abordado através da análise tradicional associada com conceitos intertextuais,
apresentados em categorias. Os elementos relacionados às estilizações da música
popular brasileira serão discutidos por meio das tópicas musicais, sendo considerada
neste trabalho uma subcategoria intertextual.

Bearing in mind that the paths to compositional activity can permeate a specific approach, this paper seeks to direct it to the intertextual bias to compose work for guitar and orchestra. The discussion is relevant considering the growing interest in the subject and its applicability in Music. The bibliographic clipping literature - Bakhtin (2010), Kristeva (2005), Genette (2006), Bloom (2002) and Sant'Anna (2003) - relates to authors in the field of music through the eyes of intertextual theory. The songs were chosen by the Brazilian composer Guinga (1950), for voice and guitar, as "source text" in order to use it as a musical production of compositional and analytical support. It was found in Guinga's repertoire world a dialogue with various trends and an accurate sense of idiomatic usage of their guitar songs accompaniment. We analyzed proceedings where the idiomatic can be used as a feasible compositional tool, especially in the universe of guitar. This provided compositional design parameters arising intertextual and idiomatic (guitar), where some compositional attitudes were treated. This routing pointed to an idiomatic intertextuality. Concurrently, we musically developed some of the specific features related to the literature, such as heading, quotation, parody, among others. There was also an approximation of intertextual theory to postmodernism, ascertained in discussions on the subject. The result of the work can be attributed in the work Aporia, in which they dealt with some of the aesthetic issues, language and intertextual proposals.

My book Songwriting Strategies: A 360º Approach (Berklee Press/Hal Leonard, 2014) provides general exercises for expanding your range and honing your craft as a songwriter. My artistic and teaching focus is now turning toward applying these foundation tools to writing in particular genres and styles. While building on the foundation of craft outlined in my book, the artistic goal of writing songs within or informed by specific genres demands complementary pedagogical approaches. The pedagogical approach I’m exploring is one I call stealing fire. It involves exploration of a “model” song, through an intensive process that goes beyond technical analysis and approaches more a kind of exegesis (in the sense with which one approaches, with reverence, a sacred text). This engagement with an example song leads to a creative response: new work that adapts or borrows specific elements from the model song and recasts it in a new context.

The purpose of the paper is to determine the basic role of cover versions in the reality of culture 2.0. The starting point for the essay is a reflection on several key concepts for this issue, including ‘stereophony’ of cover songs (established by Deena Weinstein) and the ‘authenticity’ of covering artists. At some point every cover is a kind of music translation – one piece of music is translated into another, sometimes even from a different genre, with a careful attention to creative sensitivity and private means of expression. Author focuses on a very specific group of covers – the ones which are interpretative, recorded for gaining popularity and, most of all, created to post them on the Internet (for this reason they have been named e-covers). Case study of the Postmodern Jukebox project makes it possible to reach broader conclusion about the complicated relationship between the original version and the cover, the importance of audiovisual poetry, and the potential for subversion in such an intertextual performance.

This study presents examples of analyses of the functionality of the intertextual and semiotic analysis model for popular music proposed by Özmenteş (2019). One example were selected for the first-level analysis (IA-fundamental analysis framework), which focuses textual and musical data on the change of meaning and context through the exchange and interaction of popular music pieces: The Time of My Life (B. Medley & J. Warnes, 1987) and Dirty Bit (Black Eyed Peas, 2010). On this level, lyrics, melodic and harmonic structures, performance, style, recording and timbre quality were examined, and mastering spectral analysis was done. On the second-level IA+S-extended analysis framework, the intertextual interactions (IAfundamental analysis framework) of different versions based on the theme Misirlou and semiotic analyses of the videos of these versions were included. Musical and non-musical meaning and identity representations referred to by each sign were examined in the semiotic analyses, and the data on the change of meaning and context in the musical element and text over time were determined. The functionality of the model is discussed theoretically and practically using the examples for the first level of the model and for both models together.

The structure of intertextual relationships in music reveals not only a semantic perspective which remains closed to a formal analysis which is supposedly purely work-immanent. It often also clarifies the fundamental formal strategies of the work. This is clearly evident in Mozart's string quartets K. 421 and K. 465 whose formal structure may be interpreted against the background of prior texts, in one case Haydn's string quartet op. 33, no. 5, and in the other Ignaz Pleyel's string quartet op. 1, no. 1. The references reveal two different strategies for surpassing precursors, one deconstructive, the other a reshaping. (RILM 2001-11838)

Este artigo trata da formalização de sistemas composicionais a partir da manipulação de parâmetros musicais extraídos de diversos intertextos. Após um exame da Teoria Geral dos Sistemas e da Teoria da Intertextualidade, bem como das aplicações dessas teorias no campo da composição musical, através de ferramentas composicionais intertextuais propostas por Kevin Korsyn (com base nas proporções revisionárias de Harold Bloom) e Joseph Straus, realizamos a formalização de um sistema composicional, ao qual se aplicou um planejamento paramétrico (alturas, durações, texturas etc), com o intuito de compor uma obra para quarteto de cordas, denominada “Incelença”.

Resumo: No presente artigo apresentamos o processo composicional do Quarteto nº 2, de minha autoria, tendo em vista suas relações intertextuais com os quartetos de cordas 1, 6 e 14 de Heitor Villa-Lobos, que são objetos de minha pesquisa de doutorado em andamento. Discutimos as possibilidades do uso da textura musical como elemento referencial para a estruturação de uma nova obra a partir desses mesmos quartetos. Inicialmente, fizemos uma breve revisão da literatura sobre intertextualidade musical, apresentando conceitos desenvolvidos por Hatten, Barbosa e Barrenechea, Lima e Pitombeira e Dudeque, e sobre textura musical, apresentando conceitos de Berry e a contribuição de Levy sobre textura e forma, tendo em vista sua utilização no processo criativo da composição do Quarteto nº 2. Discutimos, em seguida, os diversos elementos provenientes da obra de Villa-Lobos para quarteto de cordas que foram utilizados na composição da nova obra, apresentando exemplos musicais e relacionando-os com os diversos tipos de intertextualidade. Assim, a estrutura formal em multimovimentos, o uso da forma livre, rapsódica, o uso de gesto formado por linhas em movimento contrário, a citação direta de motivo, o uso de texturas polifônicas imitativas com densidades diferentes, o uso do timbre específico da surdina e do violoncelo como condutor melódico e o uso de elementos relacionados com aspectos quantitativos e qualitativos texturais em um nível profundo, provenientes dos quartetos de cordas de Villa-Lobos foram importantes referências na concepção e realização da composição do Quarteto nº 2. Finalizamos apresentando possíveis desdobramentos do trabalho, sejam eles referentes à composição de novas obras para formações diferentes, a partir do uso de material proveniente da obra de Villa-Lobos, ou à composição de novos quartetos de cordas, utilizando outros compositores como referência. Palavras-chave: quarteto de cordas; Villa-Lobos; intertextualidade; textura; composição. Abstract: In the present paper we present the compositional process of the Quartet nº 2, of my authorship, in view of their intertextual relations with the Villa-Lobos' string quartets 1, 6 and 14, which are objects of my doctoral research in progress. We discuss the possibilities of the use of musical texture as a reference for structuring a new work from these same string quartets. Initialy, we did a brief review of the literature on musical intertextuality presenting concepts developed

Gerardo Gandini (1936-2013) developed since the late 60s a musical poetics which main attribute rests on the aesthetical availability of the materials provided by the history of Western music. The reinterpretation of materials coming from different historical contexts shaped Gandini's work as a complex intertextual framework. The availability principle was also extended to all kinds of aesthetic genres. His Diaries project the literary diary and the cycle of pieces, intertwining musical, literary and pictorial imaginaries. The article studies the Diaries by Gandini with the focus posed on: a) empirical aspects related to dating and work's constitution problems; b) the ways his intertextual poetics assume compositional shape - to that end two pieces, "... pájaro profeta (I)" (Diary III) and "Fontana: modelo" (Diary IV), are thoroughly analyzed; c) the aesthetical problems that poses the genre adscription, implied in the works' title as well as in the production and reception conditions of these pieces; and finally, d) several layers of meaning resulting from these aspects.

Resumo: Este texto consiste na análise dos aspectos intertextuais presentes no Lento (Assai) da Sinfonia n. 8 de Heitor Villa--Lobos (1887-1959), composta em 1950. É observado de que forma essas relações intertextuais incidem, apresentando as influências musicais exercidas no compositor, compreendendo o contexto em que o mesmo estava inserido, observando com quais compositores Villa-Lobos dialogava e de que forma isso ocorria. O fenômeno intertextual na música é abordado através da análise tradicional conexa com conceitos intertextuais, apresentados em categorias. Estas categorias englobam elementos gestuais, motívicos e estilizações. Os elementos relacionados às estilizações, em especial da música popular brasileira, serão discutidos através das tópicas musicais.

The  folklore  has  been  an  inspiration  through  the  history  of  music.  Federico  Moreno  Torroba's  Dedicatoria makes possible to discover intertextual relationships with Andalusian folklore, other works by  the  composer,  and  other  compositions  by  other  composers.  Dedicatoria serves  as  an  example  to  compare  it  with  other  similar  works  that  are  inspired  by  folklore  and  that  serve  to  relate  them  intertextually  in  the  use  of  folklore  as  inspiration,  using  forms  and  harmony  intertextually.      Contextualized  this  work  within  Spanish  nationalism,  the  aesthetic  and  ideological  principles  of  the  composer  are  analyzed  in  his  manifesto  on  Casticismo  influenced  mainly  by  Miguel  de  Unamuno.  This  investigation try to show how the composer follows the compositional way drawn by Pedrell and his disciples,  mainly  Falla,  using  harmonies,  forms,  rhythms  and  modal  colors  such  as  Phrygian  in  their  compositions, integrating within the nationalist style. The identification of intertextual procedures has been based basically on what was defined by M.L. Klein, identifying intertextual relationships that are basically  quotes,  allusions,  such  as  poietic  intertextuality, influence  and  other  intertextual  procedures  with folklore, with his own works for guitar and zarzuelas, works by other composers and with the work of Falla.Keywords:  Federico  Moreno  Torroba,  folklore,  nationalism,  neoclassicism,  intertextuality,  casticismo,  zarzuela

Resumen El presente proyecto se basa en el análisis de las ballades de Filippotto da Caserta, com-positor italiano de procedencia meridional vinculado a las cortes de Pavía y Aviñón durante el periodo del Gran Cisma (1378-1417). En el marco de las investigaciones más recientes sobre las categorías de la intertextualidad como fenómeno literario y musical en el Ars Nova italiano, han sido identificadas posibles referencias alusivas y citaciones textuales de materiales meló-dicos preexistentes. Se trata puntualmente de dos melodías propias del repertorio litúrgico di-rectamente ligadas a las composiciones polifónicas a nivel poético y musical. Dichas observa-ciones pueden representar un aporte significativo para el estudio de la intertextualidad como fenómeno constitutivo de la cultura, y a su vez, para contextualizar estas composiciones, cuya génesis, datación, destinación y ambiente de referencia son a menudo reconstruibles sólo en modo conjetural a causa de la escasa documentación disponible.

Annual National Meeting of the American Musicological Society. Boston, MA. 31 October-3 November 2019

Although a few scholars, including Bisogni (1968) and Newbould (1992), have noted Rossini’s impact upon individual works of Schubert composed shortly after the arrival of Tancredi in Vienna in late 1816, none has fully examined the breadth and depth of Schubert’s fascination with Rossini during this period. Rather than consider such pieces as the two Overtures “in the Italian style” (Fall 1817) in isolation, I will argue that Rossini influenced a much larger complex of approximately twenty-five of Schubert’s compositions written between his first exposure to Tancredi and early 1818.

Schubert’s works from this time demonstrate an immediate and sustained interest in Rossini through their motivic, gestural, stylistic, and formal references to his music, many of which have remained unrecognized. Vedi quanto adoro (December 1816), for instance, incorporates melodic ideas from Tancredi, while the harmonic design, accompanimental textures, and even the text of Ganymed (March 1817) resonate with “Di tanti palpiti.” Schubert paraphrased this aria at the opening of the second movement of his Sixth Symphony (October 1817-February 1818).

The subtlety of many of Schubert’s allusions to Rossini suggests a desire to “make pre-existing ideas his own,” much as Brahms approached music by his predecessors (Knapp, 1998). Schubert likewise looked toward Rossini to help him master the overture, much as he had modeled rondos on Beethoven (Cone, 1970). Whereas Vande Moortele (2017) has also related Schubert’s Overtures “in the Italian style” to Gossett’s formal archetype for a Rossini overture, I recognize additional structural idiosyncrasies shared with the Overture to Tancredi that indicate a closer relationship. Moreover, Schubert adapted this framework (without crescendos and other foreground references to Rossini’s style) in the Overture to Die Zauberharfe (completed by 1819-20), which reuses ideas from his first Italian-style overture.

Schubert’s interest in Rossini notwithstanding, he continued to incorporate Beethovenian ideas into his music. Cone recognized that Schubert completed at least one piece partially modeled upon Beethoven between 1816 and 1818, and the Sixth Symphony balances Beethoven’s and Rossini’s influences. At a time when allegiances to these two composers divided the Viennese public, Schubert drew inspiration from them both.


Earlier Version Presented at Annual Fall Meeting of the Midwest Chapter of the American Musicological Society. The University of Illinois at Chicago. Chicago, IL. 22-23 September 2018

Earlier Version Presented at Annual Joint Meeting of the Northern California and Pacific Southwest Chapters of the American Musicological Society. Stanford University. Palo Alto, CA. 28-29 April 2018

Este artigo trata da metodologia de elaboração de um sistema composicional utilizando a intertextualidade como ferramenta essencial na composição de Cosmos, para quarteto de flautas doce e harpa. Três intertextos, de diversos períodos históricos, serão o ponto de partida para o planejamento composicional, o qual é gerenciado através da utilização de definições sistemáticas, que consistem basicamente na aplicação de ferramentas intertextuais propostas por Joseph Straus e Harold
Bloom.

This article describes the compositional planning of the work Primaveras, for brass quintet, drawn from the intertextual components of three compositions related to the theme of spring. The coordination of intertexts is controlled by the Cosmos System, originally created by composer Flávio Lima (2011), for the composition of the work Cosmos. We intend, in this paper, to demonstrate the procedures for intertextual handling, as well as the flexibility of this system by reusing it in a different context from the original.

Since its inception digital sampling has attracted its fair share of criticism. “Unoriginal”, “lazy”, and “thievery” are the most common charges directed at the practice. While there are many examples of sampling that possibly deserve such vitriol, other artists use it in highly creative ways that make significant contributions to the evolution of popular music. Using the music of Portishead as an example I will demonstrate some of the ways in which the practice of sampling can be a legitimate art form in its own right. Sampling methods of building a composition from musical snippets result in a new musical language, introducing new harmonic grammar into the lexicon of popular music. Drawing on a wide variety of musical sources, Portishead’s use of sampling allows for the transformation and juxtaposition of genre and culture, resulting in a complex hybridization of Eastern European spy soundtracks from the 1960s, soul and jazz from the 1970s, and American urban hip hop of the 1980s. The practice of sampling also informs and influences certain production methods, such as the bands preference for foregrounding recording media and music technology and exposing the contrast between tradition and innovation.