Musical quotation is the practice of directly quoting another work in a new composition. The quotation may be from the same composer's work, or from a different composer's work. Sometimes the quotation is done for the purposes of characterization, as in Puccini's use of The Star-Spangled Banner in reference to the American character Lieutenant Pinkerton in his opera Madama Butterfly, or in Tchaikovsky's use of the Russian and French national anthems in the 1812 Overture, which depicted a battle between the Russian and French armies. Sometimes, there is no explicit characterization involved, as when Luciano Berio used brief quotes from Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Alban Berg, Pierre Boulez, Gustav Mahler, Claude Debussy, Paul Hindemith, Maurice Ravel, Arnold Schoenberg, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Richard Strauss, Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern, and others in his Sinfonia.
Musical quotation is to be distinguished from variation, where a composer takes a theme and writes variations on it. In that case, the origin of the theme is usually acknowledged in the title. In the case of quotations, however, an explicit acknowledgment does not generally appear in the score. Some exceptions are found in Robert Schumann's Carnaval:
in the section "Florestan" he quotes a theme from his earlier work Papillons, Op. 2, and the inscription "" is written underneath the notes
in the final section, he also quotes another theme first used in Papillons, the traditional Grossvater Tanz, but this time the inscription is "Thème du XVIIème siècle".
Alban Berg quoted Johann Sebastian Bach's setting of the chorale "Es ist genug", the closing chorale of Bach's cantata O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60, with variations in the final movement of his Violin Concerto, subtitled "To the memory of an Angel" in memory of Manon Gropius who died at age 17. In the fourth movement of his Lyric Suite for string quartet, Berg quoted a phrase from the third movement of Alexander Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony that originally set the words "Du bist mein eigen, mein eigen".
Georges Bizet used a song "El Arreglito" by Sebastián Iradier as the basis for the "Habanera" in his opera Carmen, believing it to be an anonymous folk song. When he discovered its true author, who had died only ten years earlier, he made an acknowledgment in the vocal score.
Johannes Brahms quotes Gaudeamus igitur and other popular university songs in his Academic Festival Overture.
Benjamin Britten quoted many other works in his opera Albert Herring
Alberto Franchetti quoted widely from German popular songs and from the work of several German composers in his opera Germania, in order to lend the score a German color
Charles Ives was particularly fond of quoting other composers' themes in his works. They can be found in works such as Three Places in New England and his Piano Sonata No. 2
Robert Schumann quoted La Marseillaise in his song The Two Grenadiers and his Carnival Jest from Vienna; he also quoted two themes from his Papillons, Op. 2 in his later work Carnaval, Op. 9 ; further, he quoted Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte and Seventh Symphony in his Fantasie in C, Op. 17
Dmitri Shostakovich – various examples, for instance the Can-Can from Jacques Offenbach's opera Orpheus in the Underworld
Richard Strauss quoted the funeral march from Beethoven's Eroica symphony in his Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings
Strauss used many quotes from his own works in his symphonic poem A Hero's Life
Strauss quoted Luigi Denza's song Funiculì, Funiculà in his symphonic poem Aus Italien, believing it was a folk song
Igor Stravinsky quoted a theme from Franz Schubert's Marche Militaire No. 1 in D in his Circus Polka.
Sir Arthur Sullivan did quote actual melodies by Franz Schubert and Johann Sebastian Bach, but he was more adept at deliberately imitating the styles of other composers without actually quoting their works. The styles of Bellini, Bizet, Donizetti, Dvořák, Gounod, Handel, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Rossini, Verdi, Wagner and others can all be found in his works.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky quoted the Russian national anthem, La Marseillaise, a Russian Orthodox plainchant, and some Russian folk songs, in his 1812 Overture. He used folk material in other compositions, such as the 4th Symphony and the 1st Piano Concerto. He quoted the traditional Grossvater Tanz in Act I of The Nutcracker. And in Act 2, Scene 2 of The Queen of Spades, he has the Countess sing Laurette's aria "Je crains de lui parler la nuit" from André Grétry's opera Richard Coeur-de-Lion.
Heitor Villa-Lobos quoted Yara, a schottische composed in 1896 by :pt:Anacleto de Medeiros|Anacleto de Medeiros, in his Chôros No. 10, as well as the text added in 1907 by :pt:Catullo da Paixão Cearense|Catullo da Paixão Cearense, from which Villa-Lobos took the subtitle of his work, "Rasga o coração".
Quotation is also a tradition in jazz performance, especially of the bebop era. Charlie Parker, for instance, quoted Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in his solo on "Repetition", and "Country Gardens" on his Verve recording of "Lover Man"; Dizzy Gillespie quotes David Raksin's "Laura" on "Hot House" during the Massey Hall concert. Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins are especially famed among jazz fans for their addiction to quotation. Often the use of musical quotation has an ironic edge, whether the musician is aiming for an amusing juxtaposition or is making a more pointed commentary.
