How I wish I'd never heard..........

[Hornspieler]

Bit late to the table there HS :

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...9875#post29875

Oh dear, naughty me! Problem is that one has difficulty in accessing Internet Explorer when lying in a hospital bed; but I'll try to keep up in future.

HS

[amateur51]

This was a traditional melody to which the English music hall artist, Charles Coburn, set words in 1886 and achieved fame by so doing.

These coincidences occur from time to time (there are only so many combinations of a series of notes) but the song was well known before Rachmaninoff wrote his 4th concerto and it could have just lingered in his memory, as many popular songs do.

HS

And the evidence that Rachmaninov knew this is ...?

[Nick Armstrong]

is that a considered "No", then?

(I promise not to mention it if you are a fan of Chicken Shack !!)

[Hornspieler]

And the evidence that Rachmaninov knew this is ...?

I think we may assume that he didn't know. A nice phrase came into his head and he wrote it down.
Did Franz Schubert deliberately incorporate Pachelbel's famous Canon into the second subject of his great C major symphony?
Or did he just happen to write the same succession of downward heading notes?

I think that where the question of plagiarism arises, one should always give a distinguished composer the benefit of the doubt.

HS

[LeMartinPecheur]

The slow movement opening theme of Rachmaninov PC 4 resembles "Two Lovely Black Eyes" - this just occurred to me listening to COTW!

I seem to recall a critic describing it as "Two lovely blind mice", which I think is closer

[salymap]

I seem to recall a critic describing it as "Two lovely blind mice", which I think is closer

Attempting 'Variations on some nursery tunes' perhaps

[EnemyoftheStoat]

I seem to recall a critic describing it as "Two lovely blind mice", which I think is closer

And a darn sight cleverer.