Lecture on music borrowing

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

J. Peter Burkholder, professor of music at Indiana University, will give a free lecture titled “Musical Borrowing or Curious Coincidence: Testing the Evidence”at 4 p.m. Friday in Youngstown State University’s Bliss Hall recital hall, as part of the Dana School of Music’s musicological series.

Many pieces of music include portions borrowed from others, whether quoting an existing piece, writing variations on it, paraphrasing a melody, using another piece as a model, or subtly alluding to it. It is not always obvious whether such borrowing is happening, and musicians, listeners and scholars may hear borrowings that composers did not intend.

What evidence can be used to argue for or against a claim that the composer of one piece has used material from another piece? Burkholder’s will attempt to answer that question.

The musicological series is sponsored by the Dana Research Society, a student organization devoted to research in music history. For a list of other lectures in the series, email Dr. Ewelina Boczkowska at eboczkowska@ysu.edu.