don@oakhill.UUCP (Don Weiss) (12/28/84)
Discussion of the similarity of some of John Williams' movie music to parts of Gustav Holst's "The Planets" brought to mind another aumusing debt he seems to owe, to Richard Strauss. In "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" a simple five-note motif plays a pivotal part in the first contact of scientists with the mother ship. In "Superman," the love theme also features a five-note rising motif that turns out to be essentially an inversion of the aforementioned CEOTTK theme (only difference-a third interval instead of a fifth). The kicker is, in this form, it's really a borrowing of the rising motif in Richard Strauss' "Death and Transfiguration"! Just thought you'd like to know.