Timeless: Pastiche & Homage

Long before neo-classicism and neo-romanticism, etc etc, composers were celebrating (or even mocking) their predecessors by writing music in the old style. But pastiche as an art-form reached its acme of perfection in the work of Stravinsky: perhaps only Picasso has had so many distinct periods in his creative life (and indeed the two worked together to create respectively the music and the backdrops for Sergei Diaghilev’s spectacular Ballet Russes in the 1910s). For Stravinsky, the ferocious Rite of Spring gave way to his neo-classical period (and still later to his serialist period): such works as Apollon Musagette, Pulcinella and the Symphony in C, all in different ways are pastiches of the “classical” style---old idioms and tunes spiced up with harmony and orchestration that is just a bit “off”, Mozart but not quite!

Of course, a number of other great composers of the last century have used the same devices, as late as Shostakovich’s 15^th symphony (1973) with its tongue-in-cheek quotations of Rossini’s “William Tell” overture.

Sometimes, of course, echoing the older music is done to pay homage: Schoenberg’s reworked concertos by Handel and Monn fall into that genre, though are admittedly not the best known works one can think of. A better example perhaps are two works from Shostakovich in his prime: the great noble melody from the Passacaglia of his 1^st violin concerto is a timeless Brahmsian utterance, while his Preludes and Fugues are Bachian not just in form but also in spirit.

Perhaps the most joyous and avid practitioner of both pastiche and homage was Prokofiev. His “Classical” Symphony and 1^st piano concerto are like letting loose a herd of elephants on a football field, rambunctious, affectionate sendings-up of respectively Haydn and Tchaikovsky—what draws you in is the way he can convincingly mimic his models, before, of course, sticking out his tongue at them!

He could however, pay homage without innuendo: his Sonata for Solo Violin is a magical, completely retro Baroque work without a trace of irony and of course, his greatest masterpiece, the ”Romeo and Juliet” ballet is the 4^th great ballet that Tchaikovsky never wrote, while being  completely of its own time.