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Here is a collection of six compositions from the United States which are all quite literal reinterpretations of or variations on older music. Some of the older music will be very familiar and some less so.
 "Happy Birthday to You":
Fêtes (Variations on Happy Birthday) (1975) by Ivan Tcherepnin
Mille regretz by Josquin des Prez:
Threnody (after Josquin's Mille regretz) (1987/1993) by David Dzubay
J. S. Bach's Partita No. 6 in E Minor:
Nach Bach (Fantasia for Harpsichord or Piano) (1966) by George Rochberg
Petroushka by Igor Stravinsky:
Petroushskates (1980) by Joan Tower
the folk music of the Appalachian mountains:
Crosswinds (1995) by Margaret Brouwer
the national anthem of the US, The Star-Spangled Banner:
Concert Variations on The Star-Spangled Banner (1868) by Dudley Buck
While a number of these works have lighter moments, they are not spoofs or even comic works. As in the older tradition of 'parody' pieces, the source material is treated with respect.
Tcherepnin's Fêtes (Variations on Happy Birthday) for piano picks up on the melodic shapes and harmonies of this very simple and almost global tune, preserving a kind of sentimental quality appropriate to a birthday. Similarly, Dzubay's string quartet Threnody after Josquin makes a point of keeping the haunting quality of Josquin's chanson. Nach Bach, a piano work by George Rochberg, considers Bach's Sixth Partita from the prespective of being one realization of this material among many other possiblities - quoting and varying the original material while inserting freer passages in a rather Baroque manner.
The Joan Tower and Margaret Brouwer compositions (for chamber ensemble and string quaret, respectively) focus more on the timbre, atmosphere, or sense of motion of the older music they use in creating their homages. Finally, the Concert Variations on The Star-Spangled Banner of Dudley Buck, the only nineteenth-century work on this program, is a classic set of virtuosic variations on a theme for organ - designed to wake a dozing audience.
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