parker@psuvax.UUCP (Bruce Parker) (05/23/84)
Dewayne Perry writes: > One of Brahms' students was analyzing a composition of Brahms and pointed > out that one of themes was from a piece by another composer. > Brahms' reply: "Any ass can see that!" Not quite. During the rehearsal of his 1st Symphony, someone pointed out the similarity between the principal theme of the last movement with the corresponding theme from Beethoven's 9th. Thus Brahms's reply. Stravinsky noted that it was not whether one plagiarized, but what one did with the material you stole. In Brahms's case, he took a silly drinking song to which Beethoven had taken a maudlin fancy and gave it a slightly improved setting (assuming you prefer Brahms's murky orchestration and sonata form over Beethoven's set of variations). The next step is to notice that Mahler uses the same theme in a minor key to open his 3rd Symphony. Personally I have no love for this theme -- it seems little better than the diddling that passes for melodies which Vivaldi or Pachelbel scribbled -- however it does serve as a rather obvious example of plagiarism. Bruce Parker PS: The Introduction to "Le Sacrifice" from "Le Sacre du Printemps" is the source for Williams's The Desert music from Star Wars (when the robots crash land on Dantooine (sp?)).