Thoughts and positions

Hey all,

What do you think about this??

Thoughts_and_Positions_for_violins.mid

I think you've plagiarised Jacques Berthier's "Laudate Dominum omnes gentes" without giving him proper credit, that's that I think. :thumbsup:

Did you mean to do this, or were plagiarising accidentally? If you didn't mean to, don't feel too badly...it happens to the best of us. This piece is commonly performed as an ostinato meditative chant at Taizé services. http://www.taize.fr/en_article463.html You must have been spending a fair amount of time at church, because I can't imagine where else you might have heard this that it seeped into your subconscious so thoroughly. You've reproduced it note for note.

If you did mean to do this: it's fine to do a passacaglia or a set of variations on someone else's melody, and what you've done is perfectly fine; but you must give them credit, i.e. "Passacaglia on a theme by Berthier." It's less colourful than the name you've given it (which I'm not sure I understand), but more accurate. If the composer is living, you have to be even more careful, because then there are copyright issues to be considered.

Thanks for the information J. Lee Graham. I never heard that song beafore. Maybe i heard this when i went to a church when i visited lebenon. i sm not sure though. i just nkept hesring this music in my mind and i desided to write it down. i really didn't meant to copy somone else without giving him credids!! i am really sory!! :thumbsup:

Wow, that was strange...

:) i would say that even Jacques Berthier is just one of thousand of plagiarists of this melody because it is known from Renaissance! i have it in a score of renaissance pieces and later will tell you the author's name if i would be able to find it out of a mass of scores i have.

fortunately the score was at the mountain's top! there the melody appears as "Faronell's Ground", by an anomymous composer.

today i suspected of making references in my music to bartok's second string quartet, and possibly mahler's 1st symphony. but i'm innocent. and they're subtle.

if borrowing from others would be blamed as crime all composers would be thrown in gaol. only recently this kind of procedure became looked on with disaproval and i can't figure why! maybe contemporaries think themselves absolutely original, a ridiculous presumption. Bach, Haendel, Mozart and all the greats made great music with others' themes and never said from where they had picked their ideas, but nowadays if you do not give to the critics a complete report with dozens of academic labels and book references they call you a thief. what a waste of time.....

well i agre with you but think of it. would you like someone to copy a part of your music with out giving you credit??

and by the way if i knew that part of my music was existed already, written by somone else i would give him credit.

:) speaking frankly i wouldn't care. if he used my pieces it is a sign that he liked them and that is a good reward.

i would say that even Jacques Berthier is just one of thousand of plagiarists of this melody because it is known from Renaissance! i have it in a score of renaissance pieces and later will tell you the author's name if i would be able to find it out of a mass of scores i have.

Somehow that doesn't surprise me. It does sound much older, doesn't it?

I'm not sorry I said anything, though. Like it or not, Berthier's estate has the copyright on it now.

Like it or not, Berthier's estate has the copyright on it now.

:happy: uh..... i understand .... but i guess that if someone would submit the case to a court of justice he would have to give up his abusive pretensions on a tune in public domain from centuries ;) are you sure about? i guess that he could just have copyright over his post-work on the tune, and not on it itself.

are you sure about? i guess that he could just have copyright over his post-work on the tune, and not on it itself.

Actually, if you'll follow the link I posted in my original comment, it is the Taize Community that owns the copyright. But there the music is, in black and white, with Bertier's name on it. I'm not making this stuff up. Why would I?

Are you actually referring to the tune itself, or the the ground bass it was written on? That ground bass is indeed many centuries old, and it has been used for many a similar set of variations (passacaglia, etc.) over the years.

Here is the link again: http://www.taize.fr/en_article463.html