Unintentional Plagiarism

Have you ever found yourself writing something (motif, phrase...) you thought was good, only to, after few days, weeks, even months, find out you've already heard it somewhere else, and actally plagiarised it without knowing? I know I have, and to be honest, it happens to me quite a lot. It actually irritates me when it happens. Mostly, I unintentionally plagiarise a piece I haven't heard in a long time, and when I hear it again, it comes to me: 'Yea, that was it'. And then, I realise my whole composition was just a loose remake of that.

Does it ever happen to you?

Yes, that happens sometimes, but not as often as me consciously deciding to steal something

It's almost impossible to write a pitch sequence that hasn't been used ever before. Everything is derived or inspired by a previous work. But that's no reason to worry, since originality is overrated anyway ;) .

I remember having used ideas from other composers deliberately. Also, unintentional borrowings. I could not care less, really. Composition is not about the source of the material, but how you organize and develop it.

Originality is underrated, anyway. (Originality as in harking back to origins, prototypes... ;-)

It's only happened once that I know of. The piece has sort of lost its legitimacy in my mind.

This happens quite a bit to me when I'm daydreaming about music. I say, if the idea comes too easily, be suspicious.

stop copying famous composer then

Guilty!!! Not only have I untentionanlly plagiarised a melody but also a harmonic progression. Granted, it wasn't a partcularly complex progression, but still... :blush:

It happens to me sometimes. However, from the maths viewpoint, the shorter the idea is, the less original it is anyway because the number of options get smaller and smaller. For example, the famous motif in Beethoven's 5th, Mvt. 1 is used beforehand in Mozart's 25th Piano Concerto. But neither of them could claim to be its inventor, its just down to how you use the ideas I guess.

There are a number of different chord progressions and musical devices that are used over and over in all kinds and types of music. This is part of writing and theory. I've never unintentionally written a phrase or motif that was so specific and elaborate that it could be narrowed down to a specific song. At that point, I think you'd usually know right away.

I think using actual melodies from other sources can happen, but it should be pretty rare.  Now, borrowing orchestration styles, hamronic progression and the like I'm not sure you can avoid--especially if you are studying other composers.

There are a number of different chord progressions and musical devices that are used over and over in all kinds and types of music. This is part of writing and theory. I've never unintentionally written a phrase or motif that was so specific and elaborate that it could be narrowed down to a specific song. At that point, I think you'd usually know right away.

One time, I wrote a short spec piece called "March Of The Penguins". Not terribly complicated at all, and I thought I had come up with the perfect "motif" for the penguins- a sort of plodding yet playful piece of music, like penguins themselves. Basically I was right-I could hear and see the perfect match between visuals of penguins and the music I came up with. I thought to myself "well played sir!"

The next day though, I found myself watching an episode of a certain, dysfunctional, animated family show. As usual, the main titles blasted out in that "old time", break-neck speed, cartoon frenzy-  business as usual EXCEPT a tiny alarm went off in my brain about the main titles. I watched the show then fired up my keyboard to investigate the cause of that "alarm".

It turns out that I had changed the theme to "The Simpsons" to suit my own purposes,even though I hadn't been aware of it , at the time. Now,when I say "changed", that doesn't mean I changed the basic tones of it-BUT I did change the rhythmic notation, tempo AND my orchestration of it was certainly going to be different from "The Simpsons".

Instead of discarding this, I decided to keep it! If John Williams can "lift" from Stravinsky (STAR WARS) and Danny Elfman can lift from Christopher Young (HELLRAISER 2 for BATMAN-main title theme) with NO dire consequence whatsoever, then I'm keeping my "March..." :)

I think using actual melodies from other sources can happen, but it should be pretty rare.  Now, borrowing orchestration styles, hamronic progression and the like I'm not sure you can avoid--especially if you are studying other composers.

I can "borrow" ALL I want to from John Williams-it doesn't mean that I'm going to *sound* like him though....

https://soundcloud.com/skyy38/launch-capsule-final

Mr. Moderator. I know that you don't want "music uploads" in this section of the forums, but I DID notice that one of your many posters DO provide *links* to their work, in the "signature section".

The above is just a *link* to the piece in question, but if it is still "against the rules" I'll understand if you delete it...