Call it inspiration, call it thievery, call it the ultimate form of flattery, or homage – but composers have been lifting or borrowing tunes from each other since before they were even putting their names on their compositions. Mozart lifted tunes from Haydn, Tchaikovsky from Mozart, Stravinsky from Tchaikovsky and Bernstein from Stravinsky. Sometimes consciously, as Tchaikovsky did from Mozart, sometimes subconsciously, as in the example we’re about to hear.
First, I give you this little excerpt from Beethoven’s Fifth and final piano concerto, his opus 73, dating from early 1809. Now, there’s a song in Bernstein’s musical West Side Story called “Somewhere.” I’m sure most of you have probably heard it before, which is exactly why I’m using it in this post. Check out this excerpt from Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. It’s the “there’s a place for us” lyric, dating from the 1950s and orchestrated and used in the finale.
Even better! Earlier in the piece, there’s a moment where the tune is not only the same as the Beethoven, but the orchestration is quite similar, too.
Now, I’ll tell you something else: the next part of the “Somewhere” tune, with the lyrics “hold my hand and we’re halfway there…” was stolen from Tchaikovsky. Anyone familiar enough with old Peter Ilyich to take a stab at which composition? Given that the play was all lifted from Romeo and Juliet, is it really surprising many of the tunes are, too?
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I can’t believe you forgot to mention how Vanilla Ice borrowed music from David Bowie and Queen!
posted by Scott from Cincy on 4-5-2007 at 7:25 am
In grammar school, we used to play a game called “Wonderball,” where we all stood in a circle and passed a red rubber gym ball from person to person while singing “The wonderball goes ’round and ’round.”
Years later, I heard that tune again. It was the theme from Beethoven’s Symphony #3, the Eroica. I’m told it’s a great piece of music, written in honor of Napoleon and then nearly destroyed when Luddy van B. changed his mind about the Corsican.
But to me, I think it’s a ripoff of “Wonderball.”
posted by plannerben on 4-5-2007 at 8:34 am
Despite Trivial Pursuit, Mozart did not write “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” but only “Variations…” later in life.
See Wikipedia entry on “Twinkle….” for some info that may or may not be accurate.
posted by WizardBoy on 4-5-2007 at 9:00 am
I’d say it’s homage. Eric Carmen used large passages of Rachmaninof, Barry Manilow patched in Chopin, and Procol Harum stole from Bach. I loved the themes from Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony used in the movie “Babe.” (Yes, the one about the pig.)
So maybe it’ll give the uneducated a better appreciation of the classics if they happen to hear a familiar bit by accident.
posted by Heidi on 4-5-2007 at 9:21 am
Swan Lake?
posted by Jason! on 4-5-2007 at 9:22 am
Right on Jason!
posted by David on 4-5-2007 at 9:59 am
Yay!
posted by Jason! on 4-5-2007 at 10:46 am
“Good artists borrow, but great artists steal.” – attributed to Picasso, among others…
posted by Jordan on 4-5-2007 at 1:08 pm
The Bernstein example is nothing… check out the second movement of the “Pathetique” sonata (Op. 8) and try not to sing the words to “Somewhere Out There”.
posted by CJ Casey on 4-5-2007 at 5:11 pm