Composers quoting other composers

[Nick Armstrong]

Strauss's near-quotation at the opening of "Don Juan" of the start to Mendelssohn's "Italian Symphony". ... Poulenc's borrowings from the "Pastorale" from "L'histoire du soldat" at the beginning of "Les Biches".

We could almost start a thread on this!

Well why not?

There was a quote mentioned recently, in a BAL I think (can't remember which one, someone will help), where a Schubert song with "Wanderer" in the title was allegedly quoted in another work - but I couldn't hear it even when pointed out.

I often miss these quotes, so it would be good to have a few mentioned here - might send some of us scurrying away to try and find and recognise them.

The ones I would mention are the well known quote from LvB's An die ferne Geliebte in Schumann's Fantasie in C Op. 17...

... and more esoterically, the quote from Strauss's Salome in Puccini's La Rondine - I noticed this when attending a performance of the latter and it came over as a really affectionate wink across the Alps from the Italian to his German colleague.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Shostakovich #15 (Wagner and Rossini)
Berg Violin Concerto (Bach)
Berio Sinfonia (WIKI gives "a partial list" of 21 composers quoted in the Third Movt!)
Strauss Aus Italien (Denza - ooops!)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Bruckner #3 (Wagner)
Barrett Nacht und Traum, Vanity (Schubert)

... and Erich Leinsdorf, in The Composer's Advocate cites the opening of the Adagio of Mozart's c minor String Quintet K516 as the source of Klarchen's second Aria in Beethoven's Incidental Music for Egmont.

[Petrushka]

The opening of Mahler 3 is a direct lift from the main theme of the Brahms 1 finale, which is itself a near quote of the 'Joy' theme from the Beethoven 9.

[Joseph K]

Liszt - Aux Cyprès de la Villa d'Este No. 2 - Wagner, Tristan

Berg - Lyric Suite - Wagner, Tristan.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The opening of Mahler 3 is a direct lift from the main theme of the Brahms 1 finale, which is itself a near quote of the 'Joy' theme from the Beethoven 9.

I agree with the first one, but I've never been convinced by the second. It's completely different.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Vaughan Williams quotes from Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius in the finale of his Sea Symphpny.

[Bryn]

Vaughan Williams quotes from Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius in the finale of his Sea Symphpny.

Hmm, but I don't think it's that which leads me to regard the Sea Symphony as the weakest of RVW's symphonies.

[Serial_Apologist]

Berg - Lyric Suite - Wagner, Tristan.

Also from the Lyric Symphony of Alexander Zemlinsky, although I've never been able to detect the quote.

[Dave2002]

Several composers seem to slip the opening motif of Beethoven's 5th into their work.

[Beef Oven!]

Brahms slips in a fare amount of Beethoven's 9th in the finale of his 1st symphony ......

[Beef Oven!]

Bob Simpson quotes a lot of Nielsen throughout many of his symphonies and string quartets ....

[Richard Barrett]

Barrett Nacht und Traum, Vanity (Schubert)

and the unfortunately less well-known faux départs and 13 selfportraits (also Schubert).

Numerous pieces (Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Debussy... ) quote national anthems, although of course Stockhausen really went to town with that idea.

I'd never thought of the opening of Mahler 3 as harking back to the finale of Brahms 1 but I guess it really does! Henze's Tristan on the other hand quotes the opening of Brahms 1, as well as Wagner, as might be expected. I imagine that the "Tristan chord" is one of the most frequently quoted snippets of famous music that there is, and quite often in satirical mode (Debussy, Kagel).

[Dave2002]

Brahms slips in a fare?? amount of Beethoven's 9th in the finale of his 1st symphony ......

Really? Like AS I've not been convinced of this.

Bax quotes Sibelius - in particular Tapiola.

[jayne lee wilson]

Brahms slips in a fare amount of Beethoven's 9th in the finale of his 1st symphony ......

"Das bemerkt ja schon jeder Esel"