I forgot to mention another species, a form of pastiche, music made up solely of multiple snippets of other composers. The two best I know in this genre are Patric Standford's Fifth symphony and the great "Guess who?" party piece, "Pastiche," by John Biggs. The latter work, available on an old MMC release, is a pseudo overture based on 29 works of 21 composers lasting 11 minutes. I've played it for the N.California Wagner Society and a party I threw for www.sfcv.org music critics. The quotes run by so fast and furious that even the most knowledgeable listeners (MCML-ers excepted) can't identify more than 15 composers at first hearing. When you get to variations, you can go on forever. Better to list the variations based solely on an original theme rather than someone else's. I would hazard a guess that the Enigma variations are the most famous in this opposite-of-topic category. Jeff Dunn [log in to unmask] Alameda, CA