Plagarism or not?

[jazzking]

Part of Tchaikovskys 3rd symphony, which I am sure most of you know intmately, was used ia popular song that charted, in fact it was the hook in the whole piece. Now, is this plagarism in the true sense, or a recognition of a fantastic romantic musical verse taken out of the original context? By the way it was note for note.

[Matt]

which song was this from?

[fluteandbassoon]

plagarism- a very murky area (as i found out on work experience) especially with musical performances

[jazzking]

You are correct. I think it works on % of themes and repetition of use or past use of themes in a similar style.
Is a tricky one?!

[Matt]

i believe some point in the distant past you made a thread asking whether you think music will every be totally plagarised, and you'd never be able to write an original piece of music at some point.

aside from the technical points (ever more complex harmonies, microtones etc.) I don't believe we will ever reach a point of total plagarism of everything. music isn't about harmony, or massively fast runs - it's not even about the notes. it's what's behind the notes. it's why the piece was written, and how the piece is supposed to affect you - something alot of modern music misses out on (thus my aversion to it!). you could have the same melody, and play it different ways - that much is obvious. but even the same piece of music, with the same way of playing it, can mean different things simply by its context, for example.

i expect tchaikovsky's ideas behind his motif are totally different to the artist you suggest has plagarised it; so even it was note for note, i don't feel it's plagarism. if the artist were to steal the meaning of the piece, well, that would be plagarism in my opinion.

[jazzking]

Absolutely correct. And I don't mean sinistra or dextra. Good answer from the Main man!