The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #69629 Message #1182538
Posted By: Don Firth
10-May-04 - 04:24 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Bach's Melodies in Popular Music
Subject: RE: Origins: Bach's Melodies in Popular Music
"I am not sure if J.S.B. was inspired by it or stole it."
It was not at all uncommon for composers then and now to "borrow" themes from each other and change then or add their own licks to them. This was often acknowleged with titles such as "Variations on a Theme by (whoever)." Also, there were lots of well-known tunes floating around (often folk tunes) that nobody laid claim to, and composers would take these and play around with them.
Leonard Bernstein was criticized for his "There's a Place for Us" in West Side Story because it's a dead-ringer for a theme in one of Beethoven's piano concertos. Bernstein answered by pointing out that, historically, composers very frequently did this with no need to apologize to anyone, then said of the West Side Story song, "Of course I borrowed it from Beethoven. It's much too good a melody to be used only once." West Side Story was also a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet.
The "folk process" is not limited to "the folk" (whoever they are).
It's only plagiarism if you take it note-for-note or word-for-word, making no changes, and then claim or imply that you wrote it.