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Parody music, or musical parody, involves changing or copying existing (usually well known) , and/or lyrics, or copying the particular style of a composer or performer, or even a music genre of music.
In music, parody has been used for many different purposes and in various musical contexts: as a serious compositional technique, as an unsophisticated re-use of well-known melody to present new words, and as an intentionally humorous, even mocking, reworking of existing musical material, sometimes for satirical effect.
Examples of musical parody with completely serious intent include in the 16th century, and, in the 20th century, the use of folk tunes in popular song, and neo-classical works written for the concert hall, drawing on earlier styles. "Parody" in this serious sense continues to be a term in musicological use, existing alongside the more common use of the term to refer to parody for humorous effect.
Many of the most famous composers of the 16th century, including Victoria, Lassus and Palestrina, used a wide range of earlier music in their masses, drawing on existing secular as well as religious pieces.
As musical fashions changed, however, there was little cause to re-use old modal tunes and compositional styles.Burkholder, J. Peter. "Borrowing", Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, accessed 19 February. 2012 After the middle of the 17th century, composers sought to create "a unique musical treatment appropriate to the text and the circumstances of performance". Thereafter the serious parody became rare until the 20th century.
In theatrical music, the 18th century ballad opera, which included satire songs set to popular melodies of the time, involved some of the broadest musical parodies.Price, Curtis and Robert D. Hume. "Ballad opera", Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, accessed 19 February 2012 In Così fan tutte Mozart parodied the elaborate solemnities of opera seria arias.Cook, Elisabeth and Stanley Sadie. "Parody", The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, accessed 19 February 2012 His own The Magic Flute was the subject of Viennese parodies in the decades after his death. Parodies of Richard Wagner range from Souvenirs de Bayreuth by Fauré and Messager (sending up music from the Ring cycle by turning the themes into dance rhythm)Wagstaff, John and Andrew Lamb. "Messager, André". Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, accessed 14 August 2010 to Anna Russell's Introduction to the Ring, which parodies the words and music of the cycle by presenting their supposed absurdities in a mock-academic lecture format.O'Connor, Patrick. "Anne Russell: Accomplished musical comedian famous for her lampooning of Wagner's Ring cycle", The Guardian, 24 October 2006
Offenbach, a frequent parodist (of among others Gluck, Donizetti and Meyerbeer), was himself parodied by later composers from Saint-Saëns to Stephen Sondheim.Clive Barnes. "Home grown on Broadway", The Times, 31 January 1976, p. 11 In the Savoy operas, Arthur Sullivan parodied the styles of Handel, Vincenzo Bellini, Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi and others. His own music has been parodied ever since. The parodic use of well-known tunes with new lyrics is a common feature of Victorian burlesqueErich Schwandt, et al. "Burlesque", Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, accessed 19 February 2012 and pantomime, British theatrical styles popularised in the 19th century.Peter Branscombe and Clive Chapman. "Pantomime", Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, accessed 19 February 2012
Serious parody was revived, in modified form, in the 20th century, with such works as Sergei Prokofiev's Classical Symphony and Igor Stravinsky's neo-classical works including The Fairy's Kiss and Pulcinella. However, Tilmouth and Sherr comment that although these works exhibit "the kind of interaction of composer and model that was characteristic of 16th-century parody", they nevertheless employ "a stylistic dichotomy far removed from it". The same authors comment that the use of old music in the scores of Peter Maxwell Davies similarly "engenders a conflict foreign to the total synthesis that was the aim of 16th-century parody".
Before the 20th century, popular song frequently borrowed and other church music and substituted secular words. "John Brown's Body", the marching song of the American Civil War, was based on the tune of an earlier camp-meeting and revival hymn, and was later fitted with the words "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord", by Julia Ward Howe. "John Brown's Body", Oxford Companion to Music, Oxford Music Online, accessed 19 February 2012 This practice continued into the First World War, with many of the soldiers' songs being based on hymn tunes (for instance "When this lousy war is over", to the tune of "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" "Trench Songs – When this Lousy War is Over" , The First World War Poetry Digital Archive, accessed 19 February 2012 and "We are Fred Karno's Army", to the tune of "The Church's One Foundation"). "Trench Songs – We are Fred Karno's Army" , The First World War Poetry Digital Archive, accessed 19 February 2012
Folk song has often been written to existing tunes, or slight modifications of them. This is another very old (and usually non-humorous) kind of musical parody that still continues. For instance, Bob Dylan took the tune of the old slave song "No more auction block for me" as the basis for "Blowin' in the Wind". "Bob Dylan, Blowin' in the Wind", Rolling Stone, accessed 19 February 2012
Parodists of music from the concert hall or lyric theatre have included Allan Sherman, known for adding comic words to existing works by such composers as Ponchielli and Sullivan; and Tom Lehrer, who has parodied Sullivan, folk music, ragtime and Viennese operetta. "Lehrer, Tom" , Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Ed. Colin Larkin. Muze Inc and Oxford University Press, 2009, accessed 21 February 2012 The pianist Victor Borge is also noted for parodies of classical and operatic works.Kennedy, Michael and Joyce Kennedy. "Borge, Victor", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. Oxford University Press, 2007. Oxford Reference Online. Accessed 21 February 2012
The musical satirist Peter Schickele created P. D. Q. Bach, a supposedly newly discovered member of the Bach family, whose creative output parodies musicology scholarship, the conventions of Baroque music and classical music, as well as introducing elements of slapstick comedy.Kennedy, Michael and Joyce Kennedy. "Schickele, Peter ", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. Oxford University Press, 2007. Oxford Reference Online. Accessed 21 February 2012
Parodists with differing techniques have included "Weird Al" Yankovic and Bob Rivers, who have generally put new lyrics to largely unchanged music, "Yankovic, 'Weird Al, Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Ed. Colin Larkin. Muze Inc and Oxford University Press, 2009, accessed 21 February 2012 and Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine or The Lounge Kittens keeps the lyrics intact but alters the musical style, performing rap, metal, and Rock music songs in a lounge music style. "Meet Richard Cheese: He'll grate on you, make you laugh and sing along", Las Vegas Sun, 21 August 2008 Country Yossi, a pioneering composer and singer in the Jewish music genre, reworks the lyrics of country music and other mainstream hits to convey Orthodox Judaism themes.Besser, Yisroel. "Where Country and Soul Merge". Mishpacha, April 14, 2010, pp. 42–50. Another example of musical parody is Mac Sabbath, a Black Sabbath tribute band who utilize McDonald's-themed props and costumes with altered lyrics satirizing the fast food industry. parody in the 21st century has included the 2005 musical Altar Boyz, which parodies both Christian rock and the "boy band" style of pop. "About the show", Altar Boyz, accessed 21 February 2012
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Baroque
After the beginning of the Baroque music period, there continued to be parodies with serious intent. Examples include J. S. Bach's reuse of three Bach cantatas in his Christmas Oratorio, and of many movements in the Mass in B Minor, which, to a large extent, he compiled from his own prior works. Bach frequently and systematically did this, parodying his own occasional works to preserve them for more frequent use.John Butt, "Mass in B Minor", from Oxford Composer Companions: J. S. Bach, ed. Malcolm Boyd and John Butt, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 285
Concert works and opera
The parodic elements of Bach's "Cantate burlesque", Peasant Cantata are humorous in intent, making fun of the florid da capo arias then in fashion.Tilmouth, Michael. "Parody (ii)", Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, accessed 19 February 2012 Thereafter "parody" in music has generally been associated with humorous or satiric treatment of borrowed or imitative material. Later in the 18th century, Mozart parodied the lame melodies and routine forms of lesser composers of his day in his Musical Joke. A century later, Saint-Saëns composed The Carnival of the Animals as a musical joke for his friends; several of the movements contain musical parody, radically changing the tempo and instrumentation of well-known melodies. Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra (1943) features the appearance (followed by a trombone raspberry) of a theme from Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony.
Parody in popular music
Popular music has used parody in a variety of ways. These include parodies of earlier music, for comic or (sometimes) serious effect; parodies of musical and performing styles; and parodies of particular performers.
Parodies of earlier works in popular music
In the 1940s Spike Jones and his City Slickers parodied popular music in their own way, not by changing lyrics, but adding wild sound effects and comedic stylings to formerly staid old songs. "Jones, Spike Spiked! The Music of Spike Jones", Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Ed. Colin Larkin. Muze Inc and Oxford University Press, 2009, accessed 21 February 2012 The 1957 Broadway theatre musical theatre Jamaica parodied the then very fashionable commercial variety of Calypso music.Hischak, Thomas. "Jamaica", The Oxford Companion to the American Musical, Oxford University Press 2009, Oxford Reference Online, Oxford University Press, accessed 21 February 2012 A musical using heavy parody was the 1959 show Little Mary Sunshine, which poked fun at old-fashioned operetta.Hischak, Thomas. "Little Mary Sunshine", The Oxford Companion to the American Musical, Oxford University Press 2009, Oxford Reference Online, Oxford University Press, accessed 21 February 2012
Parodies of performing styles and performers
Stan Freberg created parodies of popular songs in the 1950s and 1960s, mocking the musical conventions of the day, such as his cover of Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" where he complains of "too much echo". "Freberg, Stan" , Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Ed. Colin Larkin. Muze Inc and Oxford University Press, 2009, accessed 21 February 2012 The bandleader and pianist Paul Weston and his wife, singer Jo Stafford, created the musical duo, "Jonathan and Darlene Edwards", as a parody of bad cabaret acts. "Weston, Paul", Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Ed. Colin Larkin. Muze Inc and Oxford University Press, 2009, accessed 21 February 2012 The British group The Barron Knights became famous for their parodies of pop performers in the 1970s, whilst The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican currently perform comedy parodies of popular songs from a wide of genres primarily on folk instruments. "Barron Knights" , Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Ed. Colin Larkin. Muze Inc and Oxford University Press, 2009, accessed 21 February 2012
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