A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Pot-pourri

by J. A. Fuller-Maitland

POT-POURRI. A name first given by J. B. Cramer to a kind of drawing-room composition consisting of a string of well-known airs from some particular opera, or even of national or other familiar tunes having no association with each other. These were connected by a few showy passages, or sometimes by variations on the different themes. The pot-pourri was a less ambitious form of composition than the (modern) fantasia, as there was little or no working-out of the subjects taken, and very little 'fancy' was required in its production. It had its own class of admirers, and was at one time a very popular form of composition. Peters's Catalogue contains 38 by V. Felix, and 64 by Ollivier, on all the chief operas. Chopin, in a letter, calls his op. 13 a 'Potpurri' on Polish airs. The pot-pourri has been invaded by the 'transcription,' which closely resembles it in form although taking only one subject as a rule, instead of many. 'Olla podrida' was another name for the same sort of production.

[ J. A. F. M. ]