Knowra Musical quotation Musical quotation Musical quotation is the use of recognizable music from one composition within another. It can signal homage, commentary, memory, or a connection between works.
Musical allusion : An indirect reference to another musical work through a recognizable style, gesture, or fragment. Quotation makes a reference explicit; allusion can evoke a source without reproducing it.
Cantus firmus : A pre-existing melody used as the structural basis of a polyphonic composition. It is an early, systematic way composers placed inherited music inside new works.
Collage (music) : A compositional technique that places contrasting musical fragments together, often with their identities intact. Quotation becomes collage when multiple recognizable sources are juxtaposed.
Musical plagiarism : The unauthorized copying of protected musical expression, potentially subject to legal claims. Quotation may be deliberate and acknowledged, while plagiarism concerns copying and attribution.
Parody music : Music that imitates another work or style, often to comic or critical effect. A quotation can become parody when its reuse satirizes the source.
Parody mass : A Renaissance mass whose movements draw extensively on polyphonic music by another composer. Its practice of reworking existing compositions anticipates later forms of musical borrowing.
Musique concrète : A compositional practice built from recorded sounds transformed and organized as music. Its use of found recordings offers a close, sound-based counterpart to musical quotation.
Musical influence : The effect of one composer, work, or style on the music of another. Influence may shape a composition without any identifiable passage being quoted.
Leitmotif : A recurring musical idea associated with a character, place, object, or concept. A quoted theme can carry its established associations into a new work.
Contrafactum : A song made by fitting new words to an existing melody. It shows how borrowed music can acquire a new text and purpose.
Show all 20