Appropriation (music)

Appropriation (music)

In music, appropriation is the use of borrowed elements (aspects or techniques) in the creation of a new piece, and is an example of cultural appropriation.

Appropriation may be thought of as one of the placement of elements in new context, as for Gino Stefani who "makes appropriation the chief criterion for his 'popular' definition of melody (Stefani 1987a). Melody, he argues, is music 'at hand'; it is that dimension which the common musical competence extracts (often with little respect for the integrity of the source), appropriates and uses for a variety of purposes: singing, whistling, dancing, and so on." (Middleton, p. 96) Thus elements may be placed in a different form, placed with new elements, or varied.

Thus musical genres may be distinguished by both elements and context. "János Maróthy defines the 'folkloric' itself in terms of appropriation: the making, from whatever materials, of 'a music of your own' (Maróthy 1981)." (Middleton, p. 139)