Pastiche
The word
pastiche describes a literary or other artistic
genre. The word has two competing meanings, both discussed below.
The "hodge-podge" meaning of the word came first, appearing in
English in the late
19th century. Over the course of the
20th century,
pastiche shifted in its meaning, so that now it can be used by educated speakers as described in the second section, without any necessary connotation of hodge-podge. However, some readers intuit the "hodge-podge" reading to be the dominant or even the only meaning. The variation almost certainly results from the fact that the word is fairly rare — most readers acquire their sense of the word from just a few examples. The word is routinely used by advocates of modern architectural styles to disparage new architecture which reflects traditional styles, the mere invocation of the word often being considered sufficient to condemn a design as unworthy of further consideration. In light of the ongoing
semantic drift, it would seem that writers should use the word with caution.
In this usage, a work is called
pastiche if it was
cobbled together in imitation of several original works. As the
Oxford English Dictionary puts it, a pastiche in this sense is "a medley of various ingredients; a hotchpotch, farrago, jumble." This meaning accords with etymology:
pastiche is the French version of Italian
pasticcio, which designated a kind of pie made of many different ingredients.
In the 18th century,
opera pasticcios were frequently made by composers as notable as
George Frideric Handel (e.g.
Giove in Argo), Christoph Willibald
Gluck, and
Johann Christian Bach. These composite works would consist mainly of portions of other composers' work, although they could also include original composition. The portions borrowed from other composers would be more or less freely adapted, especially in the case of
arias in
pasticcio operas by substituting a new text for the original one.
Although there were many opera
pasticcios in the 18th century, instrumental works would also sometimes be assembled from pre-existing compositions, a notable instance of this being the first four
piano concertos of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. These concertos (
K. 37, 39-41) were assembled almost entirely from keyboard
sonata movements by contemporary composers, to which the boy Mozart added
orchestral parts supporting the keyboard soloist.
Some works of art are pastiche in both senses of the term; for example, the David Lodge novel and the Star Wars series mentioned below appreciatively imitate work from multiple sources.
Pastiche Mass
A
pastiche mass is a mass where the constituent movements are from different Mass settings.
Masses are composed by classical composers as a set of movements.
Kyrie,
Gloria,
Credo,
Sanctus,
Agnus Dei vis: Missa Sollenelle of Beethoven, the Notre Dame mass of Machaut. In a pastiche mass, the performers may choose a Kyrie from one composer, and a Gloria from another - or, choose a Kyrie from one setting of an individual composer, and a Gloria from another.
Most often this convention is chosen for concert performances, particularly by early music ensembles.
In this usage, the term denotes a
literary technique employing a generally light-hearted tongue-in-cheek imitation of another's style; although jocular, it is usually respectful (as opposed to
parody, which is not).
For example, many stories featuring
Sherlock Holmes, originally created by
Arthur Conan Doyle have been written since Conan Doyle's time as pastiches.
David Lodge's novel
The British Museum Is Falling Down (
1965) is a pastiche of works by
Joyce,
Kafka, and
Virginia Woolf. Much
fan fiction is pastiche.
Pastiche is also found in non-literary works, including art and music. For instance,
Charles Rosen has characterized
Mozart's various works in imitation of
Baroque style as pastiche, and
Edvard Grieg's
Holberg Suite was written as a conscious homage to the music of an earlier age. Many of
"Weird Al" Yankovic's songs are pastiches: for example,
Dare To Be Stupid is a
Devo pastiche, and "Bob" from the album
Poodle Hat is a pastiche of
Bob Dylan.
Pastiche is prominent in
popular culture. Many genre writings, particularly in
fantasy, are essentially pastiches. The
Star Wars series of films by
George Lucas is often considered to be a pastiche of traditional science fiction television serials (or radio shows).
The films of
Quentin Tarantino are often described as pastiches, as they often pay tribute to (or imitate) pulp novels,
blaxploitation and/or Chinese
kung fu films, though some say his films are more of a
homage. The same definition is said to apply to
Hideo Kojima as well.
Pastiche can also be a
cinematic device wherein the creator of the film pays
homage to another filmmaker's style and use of
cinematography, including camera angles,
lighting, and
mise en scène. A film's writer may also offer a pastiche based on the works of other writers (this is especially evident in historical films and
documentaries but can be found in
non-fiction drama,
comedy and
horror films as well).
*
parody*
fan fiction*
doujinshi*
homage*
archetype"Pasticcio" in Don Michael Randel, ed.,
The New Harvard Dictionary of Music. Cambridge, MA: Bellnap Press of Harvard University Press, 1986 (ISBN 0674615255), p. 614.
