Translating Music intelligibly: Musical paraphrase in the Long 20th Century

Abstract

This dissertation is a study of the practice of musical paraphrase in the long 20th century. Musical paraphrase is defined as the adaptation, alteration, or embellishment of musical material, often borrowed from another source. My project is built around a single guiding question: If a composer borrows music from another source and alters it for use in a new context, how is this accomplished, and what are their motivations for doing so? This collection of five case studies provides a representative (if not comprehensive) sample of the many practices we might call paraphrase. In Chapter 1, I explore the metaphor of musical translation. In Chapter 2, I examine the practice of altering music for use on television, which I call "copyphrase." Chapter 3 is a study of musical caricature. The final two chapters are about musical paraphrase as creative stimulus--using pre-existing music as the aesthetic point of departure for crafting something new. In Chapter 4, I focus on the film music of John Williams, and in Chapter 5, I explore the late works of Alban Berg.