Thank you for sharing this, @Kay Freeman. Permit me to offer a few thoughts on yet another art form, music.
Some years ago, Anthony Tommasini did a list of his "Top Ten" greatest composers, and Johann Sebastian Bach finished at Number One. Some might think that Bach was therefore the most "original" of the great masters, yet Norman Carrell assembled an encyclopedic reference, BACH THE BORROWER, way back in 1967. Old Sebastian "borrowed" extensively from other composers and even "borrowed" from himself! However, he did things with that material that only Bach could do.
The number of compositions titled "Variations on a Theme by [Another Composer]" or "Variations and Fugue on a Theme by [Another Composer]" is a vast one. Moreover, composers frequently "borrowed" material for other musical purposes. For example, Liszt wrote a virtuosic "Duo" for Violin and Piano based on themes from a Chopin Mazurka, yet it is highly "original": a work that only Liszt could have conceived.
If I may venture into drama, we see that Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides all "borrowed" from Greek mythology. Shakespeare? When one reads Joseph Satin's rather dated SHAKESPEARE AND HIS SOURCES, one wonders whether the Bard ever had an "original" idea...But look at the immortal art they all produced!
I believe that thought seven -- << True originality means integrating your voice into everything you do, whatever you write. >> -- is extremely valid. Again, my gratitude.
So thoughtful and so true about the music. In contemporary, rap music is notorious for it. You must have been a terrific music appreciation teacher. Your knowledge of appropriation of variations of themes would make a great book. Thanks for sharing your knowledge on the subject!
Thank you for sharing this, @Kay Freeman. Permit me to offer a few thoughts on yet another art form, music.
Some years ago, Anthony Tommasini did a list of his "Top Ten" greatest composers, and Johann Sebastian Bach finished at Number One. Some might think that Bach was therefore the most "original" of the great masters, yet Norman Carrell assembled an encyclopedic reference, BACH THE BORROWER, way back in 1967. Old Sebastian "borrowed" extensively from other composers and even "borrowed" from himself! However, he did things with that material that only Bach could do.
The number of compositions titled "Variations on a Theme by [Another Composer]" or "Variations and Fugue on a Theme by [Another Composer]" is a vast one. Moreover, composers frequently "borrowed" material for other musical purposes. For example, Liszt wrote a virtuosic "Duo" for Violin and Piano based on themes from a Chopin Mazurka, yet it is highly "original": a work that only Liszt could have conceived.
If I may venture into drama, we see that Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides all "borrowed" from Greek mythology. Shakespeare? When one reads Joseph Satin's rather dated SHAKESPEARE AND HIS SOURCES, one wonders whether the Bard ever had an "original" idea...But look at the immortal art they all produced!
I believe that thought seven -- << True originality means integrating your voice into everything you do, whatever you write. >> -- is extremely valid. Again, my gratitude.
So thoughtful and so true about the music. In contemporary, rap music is notorious for it. You must have been a terrific music appreciation teacher. Your knowledge of appropriation of variations of themes would make a great book. Thanks for sharing your knowledge on the subject!