# Parody



## mud (May 17, 2012)

"Parody music, or musical parody, involves changing or copying existing (usually well known) musical ideas or lyrics, or copying the peculiar style of a composer or artist, or even a general style of music. Although the intention of a musical parody may be humour (as in burlesque), it is the re-use of music that is the original defining feature."

By definition, all arrangements are parodies. In fact, parody may be one of the most pervasive yet relatively unknown concepts in classical music. In that each new style may be thought of as a parody of previous styles, to a certain extent. I think that even whole genres of music have developed as parodies of other genres (or subgenres at least).


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## mud (May 17, 2012)

Furthermore, like burlesque, the term parody is often reduced to its humorous connotations, although it is very much broader in definition. Parody is a characteristic of musical developments that build upon prior art. This is almost unavoidable, as prior art is studied by composers and influences their progression. Musicians too parody performance styles as they seek to distinguish their own style based those. An element of familiarity is generally desired when creating new works, and this is achieved through parody (composers parody themselves for that matter).

Such a concept may give us insight when considering how both musical and performance styles interrelate, and it seems to be an objective way of looking at classical music in general, as a series of parodies.


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## mud (May 17, 2012)

I went ahead and blogged this, as it contrasts my use of parody in postproduction, which in turn had led me to forming this opinion. Beyond that I think it is the sort of unification I was looking for to put various styles of music into perspective.


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