Talk:Potpourri (music)

Quotation from Grove Music:

Potpourri (Fr.). From its original application to a jar, literally a ‘rotten pot’, in which were kept miscellaneous spices, vegetables and so on, the term came to be applied to a musical composition which was a similar hotch potch of tunes from a pre-existing source or sources. During the 18th century the term was used in France for collections of songs which, with a thematic link, were sometimes given stage presentation. Later the term was used for instrumental collections, such as the Potpourry français, which was a collection of originally unconnected dance pieces issued by the publisher Bouïn. Still in the 18th century, the term was used by the publisher Breitkopf for a collection of new compositions by various composers, and around the end of the century it came to be applied to a string of melodies from an opera or operas, as in the Potpourri tiré des airs de ‘Zauberflöte’, ‘Domjuan’ et ‘Figaro’ for piano by Josef Gelinek. Others to produce potpourris were Daniel Steibelt, Czerny (e.g. Potpourri brillant sur les motifs les plus favoris de l'opéra ‘Faust’ de Spohr op.218) and Diabelli (Potpourri tiré des oeuvres de Beethoven). Often a potpourri included a set of variations on a selected theme. However, the term is extended only in a somewhat derogatory sense to the technically more ambitious and artistically more meritorious fantasies exemplified by many works of Czerny, the opera transcriptions and fantasies of Liszt, or the Carmen fantasy of Busoni. In just such a sense Chopin himself described his Fantasy on Polish Airs op.13 as a ‘potpourri’ in one of his letters. In England the term was apparently first used by J.B. Cramer, but subsequently the expressions ‘selection’ or ‘fantasia’ were more commonly used – the latter term, misleadingly, even for straightforward selections from operas or operettas. The term ‘potpourri’ is often used to indicate that a piece in a more precisely defined form is based on themes which are not original, for example an overture based on themes from the work it precedes (see Medley). During the 19th century selections from popular stage works were always in demand, and the task of producing them was often hack-work for the amateur or impoverished musician. The potpourri became a standard constituent of 19th-century orchestral and military band concerts of light music and often denoted more than a straightforward selection. By using themes familiar to their audiences the bandmasters were able to retain their attention for as much as 30 to 45 minutes and to exploit the allusions of particular pieces for programmatic purposes and for orchestral display. Such works are the elder Johann Strauss's Der unzusammenhängende Zusammenhang (‘The Incohesive Cohesion’, 1829) and most notably his Ein Strauss von Strauss (‘A Bouquet of Strauss’, 1832). The latter work, introduced to Britain (as Le Bouquet des dames) during Queen Victoria’s coronation season, performed by Jullien at his promenade concerts and revived in Vienna as late as 1873, used music by Beethoven, Auber, Hérold, Bellini, Haydn and others, and included such effects as ‘Chinese chimes, sledge party, post horn, cracking of whips, description of an earthquake, coronation procession, firing of cannon, ringing of bells, and shouts of thousands of spectators’. In Germany the term ‘potpourri’ is used for popular selections to the present day. See also Quodlibet. BIBLIOGRAPHY MGG2 (A. Ballstaedt) M. Schönherr and K. Reinöhl: Johann Strauss Vater (London, 1954)