Patchwork

[some guy]

I just was listening to the Zimmermann, when I realized that a GMG poll could be useful. To me, personally.

Because I'm sure there are many patchwork pieces other than these five that I don't know. More that I do know but am not accessing, given the extremely inefficient and random ways my synapses fire.

Oh, it's fun.

Anyway, what I'm looking for are not so much pieces that quote other pieces--that's a lot of pieces--but pieces that rely heavily on snippets of other works. Pieces made up almost entirely of other pieces would be ideal. As you can see from the list--which is not really for voting, but hey, it's a poll. Why not?--I include pieces in which the composer quotes himself and pieces made up of pieces that aren't all that famous. Of course, in the latter case, the people who are most likely to listen to Dhomont's symphony probably also know a fair number of the pieces he (ab)uses in Frankenstein. Especially considering that his own pieces were also fair game.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[Mahlerian]

How about Stockhausen's Hymnen, which uses fragments of national anthems?

[North Star]

Stravinsky's Pulcinella and Le baiser de la fée, surely.

And Sciarrino's Anamorfosi. Call them large patches.

https://www.youtube.com/v/xv9NB5oBhpI

[DaveF]

There are probably hundreds of (mainly) 16th-century parody masses, based on other works either by the same or other composers.  Victoria's 8-part Salve regina and its offshoot the Missa Salve are a pair where the borrowings are particularly obvious to the ear.

[some guy]

How about Stockhausen's Hymnen, which uses fragments of national anthems?

Hymnen, of course!! I knew there'd be big, obvious ones that I know perfectly well.

Thanks!!

And the Stravinsky's, of course. Also big. Also obvious (as in well known to me).

Not sure how I missed the Sciarrino, but I have never heard it. (I'm doing it now.)

Hundreds of parody masses? Now that sounds like maybe even too much fun.

[bwv 1080]

Schnittke's 3rd SQ (Josquin, Shostakovich & Beethoven's op 133)
Finnissy - Gershwin Arrangements, HOPIS
Shostakovich - Viola Sonata, 3rd mvmt (moonlight sonata)

[Mahlerian]

Not sure how interested people here would be in this, but this one video game soundtrack was made entirely (or almost entirely) from samples of orchestral music, mostly romantic and early modern.  Some people's sensibilities may be offended by the distortion of the originals (which are altered almost beyond recognition at times), and others may find the very repetitive sound of the results pretty boring (the composers generally do electronic dance-style music), but it certainly fits into this category.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8_dFsE09Vx-sK5HJcdSAxIhZ0723iAxM

[musicrom]

It's not a particularly serious piece, but this Schnittke piece is basically entirely quotes of Rimsky-Korsakov and some Tchaikovsky, and as these are two of my favorite composers, listening to it is a real treat.

Sport, Sport, Sport - The Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJY9_u2IsyQ

[some guy]

Well, I didn't think there'd be too many, but I can't help feeling that there's more than this.

Maybe not. Quoting is ubiquitous but making a piece out of other pieces, not so frequently done. For good reason, I suppose.

It did occur to me, just yesterday, that you get the same effect with pieces that composers raided for later music. Like Berlioz' Messe solennelle or Prokofiev's Eugene Onegin. Although these pieces predate their more famous siblings, the effect of listening to them is the same as that listening to a piece cobbled together from other pieces--"Hey! That's *! And that's *. And that's from the fourth movement of *. You know. I doubt that many people listening to Betrothal in Monastery are thinking "hey, that's from Eugene Onegin," though indeed it is. Rather, when one listens to Eugene Onegin, one thinks, "Hey, that's from the seventh symphony," or "that's from War and Peace."

[Parsifal]

Well, I didn't think there'd be too many, but I can't help feeling that there's more than this.

Maybe not. Quoting is ubiquitous but making a piece out of other pieces, not so frequently done. For good reason, I suppose.

It did occur to me, just yesterday, that you get the same effect with pieces that composers raided for later music. Like Berlioz' Messe solennelle or Prokofiev's Eugene Onegin. Although these pieces predate their more famous siblings, the effect of listening to them is the same as that listening to a piece cobbled together from other pieces--"Hey! That's *! And that's *. And that's from the fourth movement of *. You know. I doubt that many people listening to Betrothal in Monastery are thinking "hey, that's from Eugene Onegin," though indeed it is. Rather, when one listens to Eugene Onegin, one thinks, "Hey, that's from the seventh symphony," or "that's from War and Peace."

Going back a ways, the first four of Mozart's piano concerti, his preludes and fugues after Bach, and the transcriptions of Corelli Concerti for organ by J.S. Bach.

Isn't there a Dallapiccola piece that is based on old music? I have a vague memory, but can't place it.

And, of course, Respighi's ancient airs and dances.

[some guy]

The mention of Respighi triggered a memory.

I seem to recall a piece that consists largely of hymn tunes. It's not by Ives, if my memory serves me. And it does. (And what it usually serves me is a bunch of made up shit. ) Maybe by Cowell?

[ritter]

There's also this concoction on Wagner, Souvenirs de Bayreuth, by Fauré and Messager:

https://www.youtube.com/v/Y0RZfgsCes0

[ritter]

Cross-posted from the WAYLTN thread, as the piece most certainly deserves mention here:

...
[asin]B000003FOS[/asin]
Recital 1 for Cathy is Berio at his wackiest and most inventive. Some could say that there is some affinity with the In ruhig fliessender Bewegung movement of Sinfonia, as both pieces are made up of a plethora of quotations of music from the past (in Recital I, we start with Monteverdi's Lettera amorosa, and proceed to things such as Dido and Aeneas, Falla's Polo, the Berceuses du chat, Meyerbeer's Dinorah, the Kindertotenlieder, e così via--it's actually quite fun to try to identify the quotations). But, as opposed to Sinfonia, Recital 1 is a highly theatrical work, a tour de force for the vocalist, and it's--IMHO, purposefully--much less polished. As the work progresses, the performer's descent into madness becomes evident (and the overall effect of the piece is actually quite unsettling--fun as it is, I insist).
...

Here's the whole thing in the only recording available AFAIK:

https://www.youtube.com/v/FOPSiXtawy0

[Monsieur Croche]

The mention of Respighi triggered a memory.

I seem to recall a piece that consists largely of hymn tunes. It's not by Ives, if my memory serves me. And it does. (And what it usually serves me is a bunch of made up shit. ) Maybe by Cowell?

If I had waited one more day to respond to this via a bookmark I made, it would have been a post one year to the day after yours, lol.

Virgil Thomson wrote Symphony on A Hymn Tune, not the olio you're looking for, I think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvDtpe552Nk

Cowell composed ca. 17 pieces titled "Hymn and Fuguing Tune" many for string orchestra, others for solo instrument and smaller ensembles.

Not what you were thinking of, but a piece of which I'm an advocate, Lucas Foss, Symphony of Chorales (Symphony No.2) is a hum-dinger of a piece, thought the chorale material is Bach, Bach, and more Bach.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU1p4Em0hzQ

[steve ridgway]

Pierre Henry's La 10ème Symphonie de Beethoven if you like Beethoven - or maybe if you don't .

https://www.youtube.com/v/J2UlcGthH7A&list=OLAK5uy_mafICK9QSyPFmGmp2diah9_fm5DmIcWN4