Inmusic, apasticcio orpastiche is anopera or other musical work composed of works by different composers who may or may not have been working together, or an adaptation or localization of an existing work that is loose, unauthorized, or inauthentic.
The term is first attested in the 16th century referring both to a kind of pie containing meat and pasta (seepastitsio) and to a literary mixture; for music, the earliest attestation is 1795 in Italian and 1742 in English. It derives from the post-classicalLatinpasticium (13th century), a pie or pasty.[1]
In the 18th century,operapasticcios were frequently made by composers such asHandel, for exampleOreste (1734),Alessandro Severo (1738) andGiove in Argo (1739), as well asGluck, andJohann 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 ofarias inpasticcio operas by substituting a new text for the original one. In late 18th-century Englishpasticcios, for instance bySamuel Arnold orWilliam Shield, the "borrowed" music could be Irish or British folksongs.
Instrumental works would also sometimes be assembled from pre-existing compositions, a notable instance of this being the first fourpianoconcertos ofWolfgang Amadeus Mozart. These concertos (K. 37, 39–41) were assembled almost entirely from keyboardsonata movements by contemporary composers, to which the boy Mozart addedorchestral parts supporting the keyboard soloist.
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