Eclecticism in music

In music theory and music criticism, eclecticism refers to the use of diverse styles, either distinct from the background of an artist using them, or from culturally bygone eras and movements.[1] The term can be used to describe the music of composers who combine multiple styles of composition; an example would be a composer using a whole tone scale variant of a folk song in a pentatonic scale over a chromatic counterpoint, or a tertian arpeggiating melody over quartal or secundal harmonies. Eclecticism can also occur through quotations, whether of a style,[n 1] direct quotations of folk songs/variations of them—for example, in Mahler's Symphony No. 1—or direct quotations of other composers, for example in Berio's Sinfonia.[2]

See also

Notes
  1. For example, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9 calls back to Haydnesque classicism.

References
  1. Kennedy and Bourne 2006
  2. Cope 1997, pp. 230–33

Sources
  • Kennedy, Michael, and Joyce Bourne (eds.). 2006. "Eclecticism", in The Oxford Dictionary of Music. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Cope, David 1997. "Decategorization." Techniques of the Contemporary Composer,. New York: Schirmer Books; London: Prentice Hall International. ISBN 9780028647371.


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