How could I create a musical vocabulary based on a group of similar classical pieces?

Question

Sometimes I'll be working on a group of pieces and realize that I'd like to experiment with abstracting some of the musical ideas (rhythms, harmonies, etc) into a musical vocabulary that I could use for my own improvisations or compositions. Has anyone here ever tried this? How could I methodically break down these classical piece(s) into a musical vocabulary?FYI, I'm a fairly advanced, amateur classical guitarist/pianist with experience playing music spanning periods from Gaspar Sanz to J.S Bach to Villa-Lobos. For the purpose of this question, if you'd like to use Erik Satie's Gymnopodie's as an example, that would be a bonus for me as these are an example of the kinds of pieces that I'm talking about.

Answer 1

The art of taking samples or excerpts of musical ideas and combining them selectively is probably as old as music is. This might even be one or the sources of music. On the other hand, clearly many musicians have heard original unique music and written it down as a composition. If you, however, are inspired by parts of the compositions that you have grown to love, join the crowd. Feel free to combine these in whatever way gives you the greatest pleasure. Of course, if you publish a result, then you would want to obtain permission from the publisher, in question. But, from what you say, it just sounds like you like you are interested in gaining some further satisfaction. I wish you the best.

Answer 2

Good composers borrow-great composers steal from the masters. Taking a complete piece of music and passing it off as your original work is plagiarism. Much music is protected by copyright law. Small passages of a score can be copied, downloaded to a digital audio workstation, and changed so much that the finished product is nothing like the original. Hip-hop/rap artists "sample" other composers music and turn it into something new. Contemporary orchestral composers absolutely steal techniques, progressions, orchestration, etc.