"Good Invention Repaid with Interest": the Importance of Borrowing in Bach's Compositional Practice

Bach was a prolific composer, often compelled by demands of the eighteenth century to produce a constant supply of new music. But a significant number of Bach?s works are borrowed or parodied versions of either his earlier compositions or the works of others. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, scholars sought to explain why a composer with so many original compositions would find it necessary to look for inspiration in his earlier works and in the works of other composers. Some scholars thought Bach borrowed for expediency. Often times, Bach was under extreme time constraints to compose new music. By using other compositions as models, Bach could generate large amounts of music within a short span of time. But there are many other Bach parody works revealing that Bach borrowed throughout his musical career. Bach's contemporaries,including Handel, Vivaldi, and Telemann took a similar approach to composition. A survey of the parody practices of Bach and his contemporaries provides clues to eighteenth-century musical memory, which can be linked with an eighteenth-century view of music composition and performance practice.