Style copy

What it means

A style copy is a composition deliberately written in the style of a particular period, a genre, or a composer. It does not aim to deceive but works with the means of a foreign idiom — whether as an exercise, as an homage, or as an artistic procedure. It differs from a forgery through its intent, from the parody in that no existing music is taken over but new material is invented.

Musical use

As a teaching device, the style copy has a fixed place: whoever writes a chorale setting after the model of a particular period, or works a fugue by traditional rules, comes to know a manner of writing from the inside, as is not possible through analysis alone. Artistically the procedure is encountered where composers take up older forms and turns, for instance in twentieth-century Neoclassicism, or where a historical tone is quoted within a work to mark a scene or an attitude. In film music the procedure is widespread when a period is to be depicted.

Performance practice

When writing a style copy it helps to work precisely on a few models rather than superficially on many; check cadential formulas, voice-leading rules, rhythmic models, and typical turns. Check the result by comparing it with an original and looking for what occurs there and is missing in yours. When performing such pieces, the performance practice of the imitated style applies — otherwise the work remains on paper. Make the intent recognizable, if a piece is meant as a style copy.

Bear in mind that a style copy fulfils its purpose only if it is verifiable: compare your own result with originals and look deliberately for what occurs there and is missing in yours — cadential formulas, voice-leading rules, rhythmic models, typical turns. Work precisely on a few models rather than superficially on many. Fritz Kreisler's practice of passing off his own works as arrangements of old masters is well known. Make the intent recognizable, so that the piece is not taken for an original.