# Pieces that contain quotations from other pieces



## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

I was listening to this by Berio: 




It has quotations from Ravel's _La Valse_ and Stravinsky's _Rite of Spring_, for example (here's the full list of quotations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinfonia_(Berio)).


----------



## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Good idea for a thread!

A few more, mostly collage-like works:

Rochberg:"Music for the Magic Theatre", for chamber orchestra (1965-69) 
http://www.allmusic.com/composition/music-for-the-magic-theater-mc0002415850

Bernd Alois Zimmermann:"Musique pour le Roi Ubu", Ballet Noir for orchestra (1966)
http://www.allmusic.com/composition...oi-ubu-ballet-noir-for-orchestra-mc0002410516





Schnittke:"Symphony no.1" (1969-74) 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._1_(Schnittke)
The good Rozhdestvensky recording: 




Takemitsu:"Quotation from Dream" f. 2 Pianos & Orchestra (1991) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toru_Takemitsu





Gerard Pesson:"Aggravations et Final", pour orchestre (2002)


----------



## Jobis (Jun 13, 2013)

Most people probably know already that Berg's Violin Concerto quotes the Bach cantata 'Es ist genug', but that is my contribution to this thread.


----------



## Bas (Jul 24, 2012)

Fantastic thread idea!





is clearly quoted in the introitus/kyrie of Mozart's requiem


----------



## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

They all do it, if they have sense. It's an excellent way of deepening the culture.

Ludwig may have heard this and this and Wolfie surely heard this before he wrote this.

I think it's great art, to reference another work and re-locate it in your own, but in a wholly different context...


----------



## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)

In Symphony No. 6 of Arnold Bax it's a surprise to hear Sibelius' Tapiola appear like a cameo by a big movie star.


----------



## schuberkovich (Apr 7, 2013)

First movement of Shostakovich's 15th symphony directly quotes the William Tell overture theme.


----------



## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

This will save me a lot of typing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_quotation


----------



## Selby (Nov 17, 2012)

Ive's Symphony No. 1 in D minor

Ive's Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 19, "Concord, Mass., 1840-60"

Shosta's Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141


----------



## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Shostakovich is a happy hunting-ground for allusions, but my favorite is probably the snippets from Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata in his Viola Sonata.


----------



## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

> First movement of Shostakovich's 15th symphony directly quotes the William Tell overture theme.


And the last movement opens with a quote of the fate leitmotif from Gotterdammerung. Apparantly there is also a quote from Tristan & Isolde though I'm not familiar enough with that work to pick it out.


----------



## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Alban Berg's _Lyric Suite_ contains allusions to Wagner's Tristan as well as Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony, which inspired the title.

The finale of Mahler's Seventh Symphony is intentionally modeled on the Meistersinger Prelude, and he programmed them together to emphasize the connection.

One part of Beethoven's _Diabelli Variations_ quotes from Don Giovanni in order to show the similarity between the two themes.


----------



## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Mahlerian said:


> One part of Beethoven's _Diabelli Variations_ quotes from Don Giovanni in order to show the similarity between the two themes.


That's the 21st one, I think, and it quotes Leporello's entrance after the overtures: "night and day I slave away..." and I think Beethoven is wittily referring to himself and his task on the variations. Just an opinion, but he does it so well...


----------



## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

The _Metamorphosen_ of R. Strauss seems to clearly quote the funeral march from _Eroica_, but wasn't this unintentional / unconscious / subconscious? Anyway, I can't help but to hear it as a quote; it does enhance my listening experience of the piece.


----------



## SuperTonic (Jun 3, 2010)

Henze's _Tristan_ has direct quoatations from Chopin's Funeral March and Brahms' 1st Symphony.


----------



## Eschbeg (Jul 25, 2012)

Poulenc is right up there with Ives and Shostakovich when it comes to pervasive musical quotations. I've posted this one before: The second movement of Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos quotes the second movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21.


----------



## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

Rachmaninoff quoted from the _Dies Irae_ in like, what, every piece he wrote? He was obsessed with that thing.


----------



## peeyaj (Nov 17, 2010)

Stravinsky' Circus Polka.






quoted its main theme at this:






_Stravinsky always denied that this was a parody of the Marche militaire. He later called the whole piece a satire, the musical equivalent to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's drawings, but his notes do not reflect this._


----------



## Aurelian (Sep 9, 2011)

Shostakovich's 2nd Piano Concerto quotes Mozart's 21st Piano Concerto.

The first theme from Brahms' 1st Piano Concerto reminds me of Mozart's 24th Piano Concerto.


----------



## Eschbeg (Jul 25, 2012)

I can't prove it, but the very beginning of the overture to Hindemith's _Neues vom Tage_ sounds like an allusion to the beginning of _Marriage of Figaro_, which is appropriate since both operas are about petty domestic squabbles.


----------



## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

A part of 'Through the Looking-Glass' by Daniele Gasparini has some direct quotes from Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring'


----------



## Guest (Aug 15, 2013)

Part of the tune of Beethoven's _Emperor_ shows up in R. Strauss's _Burleske_ and again as "There's a Place for Us" in Bernstein's _West Side Story._

The opening of Liszt's _Les Preludes_ shows up again as the opening of Franck's d minor symphony.

The opening of Beethoven's fifth shows up everywhere, including a terrific bit in Xenakis' _Orient Occident._

Both Dvořák's _Noon-day Witch_ and Schnittke's _The Inspector's Tale_ introduce the four note motif in a way that has you saying, "Wait a minute, wasn't that...?" And both then hit you with a full orchestra, double forte quote that is unmistakable.

Delightful!

Many composers raided their own works. The ones I enjoy the most are Berlioz and Prokofiev.


----------



## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

Carson Kievman's 2nd Symphony contains a direct quote from Mozart's Requiem.


----------



## LindnerianSea (Jun 5, 2013)

K.A.Hartmann's 5th symphony quotes Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.
Mahler's 2nd symphony has huge chunks of it taken from the last two movements of Hans Rott's Symphony.
Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra quotes the 'invasion theme' from DSCH's 7th symphony.


----------



## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Well, it's pretty obvious, but the "Fossils" section from Saint-Saëns' _Carnival of the Animals_ quotes a few folksongs/children's songs in a brief passage.


----------



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Here's one I've been championing for years. Either I'm the only one who hears or it is just too obvious to mention. In Beethoven it appears as almost a side comment in the development section of Symphony No. 7, movement 4, but Shostakovich maybe saw its potential as a main theme. Or maybe it is just coincidental. 
Granted it is harmonically a little different.


----------



## Pip (Aug 16, 2013)

Wagner quotes from Tristan und Isolde in Meistersinger Act 3, immediately before the quintet.

Mozart quotes from Cherubino's music in Figaro during the supper scene from act 2 Don Giovanni


----------



## Yardrax (Apr 29, 2013)

The main theme of Brahms first Piano Sonata is an allusion to the start of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata. Brahms was continuing the legacy of Beethoven in more ways than one as the first theme of Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op. 2 No. 1 in F minor bears strikings similarities to one from Mozart's Symphony No. 25 in G minor.


----------



## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

I have found no references to this anywhere, but I believe in the 3rd movement of Tchaikvosky's _Pathetique_, there is a quite clear quotation from Mozart's 14th piano sonata. As far as I can see, a mere acknowledgement of his musical idol in his very final work.

*Mozart - Piano Sonata No. 14* (from 0:55)






*Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6* (from 2:17)


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Tippett's third symphony has a direct quotation of the opening of the finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, before going a totally different direction with a soprano singing.


----------



## maestro57 (Mar 26, 2013)

*Beethoven* (Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, (I) Allegro assai, bars 12 - 13 & 235 and 236) *quotes Mozart* (Fantasia in C minor, K. 475, bars 162 to 165).


----------



## maestro57 (Mar 26, 2013)

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but it's an obvious one:

*Dvořák* (Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 ("From the New World"), (III) Scherzo: Molto vivace - Poco sostenuto) *quotes Beethoven* (Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 ("Choral Symphony"), (II) Scherzo: Molto vivace).


----------



## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Blancrocher said:


> Shostakovich is a happy hunting-ground for allusions, but my favorite is probably the snippets from Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata in his Viola Sonata.


In addition, I just learned that this same piece quotes from every one of Shostakovich's own symphonies, in order. I gather that the quotations are small enough that it might be hard for anyone aside from Shostakovich himself to pick them out. Even so, it's very interesting!


----------



## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

To me it sounds like Strauss's and Beethoven's themes have a strong affinity, but Strauss is not exactly quoting Beethoven, until the very end, when there is a full-blown quote of the Eroica funeral march theme (in the double basses?). Strauss could not have been unaware of the similarity of the themes, regardless of whether he intentionally based his theme on Beethoven's. 

That's just my take on it.


----------



## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

One which comes to mind is Strauss' Alpine Symphony, where the slow movement of Bruch's 1st Violin Concerto is borrowed.


----------



## Eschbeg (Jul 25, 2012)

The beginning of Debussy's _Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun_ is more or less a quotation of Wagner's _Tristan und Isolde_. Both works begin with an unharmonized melody that lands on a half-diminished seventh chord. The myth of Pan and Syrinx, like the story of Tristan and Isolde, revolves around an amorous relationship that can only be consummated "metaphorically" rather than in reality because one of the partners is no longer physically available (Syrinx turns into water reeds, Tristan is killed).


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Jobis said:


> Most people probably know already that Berg's Violin Concerto quotes the Bach cantata 'Es ist genug', but that is my contribution to this thread.


Es ist genug being alongside a popular Viennese tune, the name or lyric of, it seems, racy enough to titillate or perhaps offend the more delicate sensibilities of some of the more conservative of TC members.


----------



## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

I have noticed this similarity too. Did Strauss ever "admit" to having borrowed Bruch's theme?

In case the forum does not make this clear, I refer to the remark "One which comes to mind is Strauss' Alpine Symphony, where the slow movement of Bruch's 1st Violin Concerto is borrowed" by Winterreisender.


----------



## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

*Strauss's Ein Heldenleben*

In Ein Heldenleben, Richard Strauss quotes many (dozens?) of his own works.


----------

