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From: janney@unm-cvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.movies,net.music
Subject: Re: more on John Williams and stealing
Message-ID: <864@unm-cvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 19-May-84 02:44:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: unm-cvax.864
Posted: Sat May 19 02:44:11 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 20-May-84 00:43:39 EDT
References: <2649@cbscc.UUCP> <679@pyuxn.UUCP>, <348@astrovax.UUCP>
Organization: Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Lines: 27

I'm getting into this late (I normally "n" over Mr. Rosen's articles);
apparently Mr. Rosen accused John Williams of stealing from Stravinsky's
"The Rite of Spring" and Holst's "The Planets".

There is a place in the score of the original Star Wars that is *very*
reminiscent of "The Rite of Spring".  It's near the beginning, I think
it's the scene where the two droids have just started wandering about in
the desert on Tatooine (sp?).  Anyway, there is slow, dense, dissonant
scoring in the woodwinds with some pizzicatto in the low strings.
The overall effect is very similar to the opening of one of the movements
in the Rite: sorry, I can't remember the title, but it's the slow movement.
If anyone is really interested I could dig it up.

I can't think of anything in the score of Star Wars that is much like
the Mars movement from the planets, unless you count the heavy use of
brass and percussion.  Personally, I think it sounds much more like
Howard Hanson.

I've heard other movie scores of John Williams, but can't remember much
about them.  The usual purpose of a film score is to support the action
without getting in the way: Star Wars is a little unusual in this respect.

I'm sure there is no direct stealing from Stravinsky: his music is still
copyrighted and zealously protected.  In general, borrowing styles or
melodies from other composers is not considered reprehensible as long
as something original is done with it.  Back in the middle ages, it was
a respected method of composition.