To What Extent Do You "plagiarize" Your Own Works?

To what extent do you "plagiarize" your own works?

Do you consider using the same or similar themes, passages and treatments across your own works should be considered plagiarization?

Or is it legitimate because it is taking from your own past works?

Are you aware of it when you engage in it? Or somebody else had better point it out to you because you are generally unaware of it?

And to what extent do you think composing in the very same style all the time and using the same formulas should also be considered a type of self-plagiarism?

This is a current problem my former composition professor is experiencing. He is no longer writing original works but is spending time to arrange several of his works for different ensembles but gives them new titles and claims them to be new compositions. :facepalm:

I did occasionaly use some motifs from one composition to another: the third movement of my Second symphony is called Play of Light - I used the first and final bars of my solo harp piece again, also for harp with mild orchestral accompaniment. One motif from Woodwind quintet no.2 was used in the opening of my First symphony, and the basic motif of my chamber piece Angel of Love was used again in the finale of my Cello Sonata. And that is probably all, as far as I can remember.

To use your own motifs more time is not a plagiat. I would rather call it "signatures", but it also might be the fact due to lack of fresh ideas. :D

The answer is no.

Some composers have done this a lot (Mahler!), but it seems more acceptable now than it might have been before the time of motivic continuity. It also helps for composers who might be short on ideas but good at manipulating the ideas they do have, lol

Stealing your own ideas makes for a better continuity in your repetoire, but can also typecast you as badly as Kristin Stewart if done too much. But it can't be considered plagiarism, as borrowing ideas from other composers is rarely considered plagiaristic either. Could Shostakovich quote Rossini in his 15th symphony without question, but be a plagiarist if it sounded like his 4th symphony? No, recycling your old themes just means that you have built up your technique strongly enough to match a good theme, and hopefully have improved it.

I agree with a lot at has been said. I think it is kind of Impossible to not plagiarize yourself even just a little. It's why we composers can hear a piece of music and be like, oh that's Mahler, or vaughan Williams etc. of course doing it too much and it's likely people will just not find it very interesting. Honestly that's why I don't like Whitacre that much anymore, i mean his music is absolutely genius but it just seems to lose my attention after awhile. He s just SO distinctive from other composers in that aspect.

That's my view on it anyway

I've done this several times in my compositions. Rather than doing it with musical motifs, however, I tend to do it with my favourite chord progressions. I have several complex sequences that have found their way into some of my piano works, as well as two of my orchestral works. I agree with Sojar Voglar on this one... it's our signature. Anybody knows when a piece is Mozart just by the style... the light, elegant style that Mozart so perfectly mastered is part of his signature, just as similar motifs or chord progressions can be signatures of a composers'.