# Composers recycling their music **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 18, 2015, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138 "2015-01-18T05:31:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/1 "2015-01-18T05:31:58Z")
A few years ago I watched _Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves_ for the first time & was surprised when I heard a musical theme that I had heard on the HBO series _From the Earth to the Moon._ A little internet research revealed that Michael Kamen was the composer for both productions. Earlier this evening, the 1956 Clark Gable movie, _The King and Four Queens_, was on TV & in several scenes I heard the melody of the theme music from the 70s miniseries _Rich Man, Poor Man_. I immediately hit the internet & found that Alex North was the composer in both cases. What music recycling have you noticed? ---
**Author:** ![PurpleClogs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f04885/32.png) [@PurpleClogs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleClogs)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/2 "2015-01-18T05:57:36Z")
Thomas Newman’s songs for American Beauty have been reused, sampled from, and remixed several times for both movies and TV. The only one I can think of off the top of my head though is House MD. But I hear them often. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/3 "2015-01-18T06:13:59Z")
I once saw the musical, Martin Guerre, which is by the same composer as did Les Miserables. I don’t think there was an original song in all of Martin Guerre, every one was just a a Les Mis song played at a different tempo. ---
**Author:** ![Eddie\_F](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/22d042/32.png) [@Eddie\_F](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eddie_F)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/4 "2015-01-18T06:18:10Z")
Two words: [James Horner](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sACBslhhWUg). ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/5 "2015-01-18T06:20:05Z")
John Williams used the same “riff” in “Earthquake,” “E.T.,” and “The Towering Inferno” and it drives me nuts whenever I hear it. ---
**Author:** ![Eddie\_F](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/22d042/32.png) [@Eddie\_F](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eddie_F)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/6 "2015-01-18T06:23:54Z")
Also: Does this [Nino Rota piece](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZgEkHWt58o) sound at all familiar? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/7 "2015-01-18T09:37:41Z")
Listen to two of Vivaldi’s more famous pieces and note the similarities. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2015, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/8 "2015-01-18T18:57:19Z")
> [@Eddie\_F](#): > > Two words: [James Horner](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sACBslhhWUg). Who also recycled other composers’ music. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/9 "2015-01-19T02:32:38Z")
Not an orchestral composer, but… Louis Jordan used the same tune for “Beware Brother Beware,” “Slender, Tender and Tall” and “All For the Love of Lil.” Probably a few others as well. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/10 "2015-01-19T06:16:46Z")
I was surprised to hear (today, as a matter of fact) how many melody segments from the music from various Looney Toons cartoons that Franz Liszt ripped off to write his 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/11 "2015-01-19T06:20:27Z")
Oh, and Willie Dixon’s _Seventh Son_ sounds suspiciously familiar to his _Hoochie Coochie Man_. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/12 "2015-01-19T09:06:18Z")
I really liked the music for “Last of the Mohicans,” so I was happy to hear it again the next year in “Cliffhanger,” and to a lesser extent in several other movies scored by Trevor Jones. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/13 "2015-01-19T09:56:05Z")
A few months back I watched the first season of Gravity Falls, since reddit was getting really hyped with the show. I quite enjoyed the [intro music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtlX1pujSr4), so I searched youtube for more stuff by the composer. Apparently, the author Brad Breeck self-stole the theme from a previous score by him, a song named “[Made Me Realize](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMid9x7JUII)”, which is so obviously the same music that it’s more popularly known as an extended version of the first. And yet he claims that both songs are completely unrelated. You be the judge. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/14 "2015-01-19T09:56:05Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Listen to two of Vivaldi’s more famous pieces and note the similarities. It is often said that **Vivaldi** wrote the same violin concerto a hundred times. That’s not fair at all. He wrote the same two violin concertos fifty times. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/15 "2015-01-19T11:02:33Z")
Joel Goldsmith seemed to have recycled a scrap of melody from his _Star Trek: First Contact_ soundtrack from the theme he wrote for _Laserblast_. “Recycled” being a wholly appropriate term, here; seeing as he had to rinse the rotting garbage off still salvageable material. ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/16 "2015-01-19T15:51:49Z")
Erich Wolfgang Korngold, a classical composer best know for his film scores, used themes from some of his best-known scores (including “Anthony Adverse” and “The Prince and the Pauper”) in his violin concerto. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/17 "2015-01-19T15:53:54Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > Joel Goldsmith seemed to have recycled a scrap of melody from his _Star Trek: First Contact_ soundtrack from the theme he wrote for _Laserblast_. > > “Recycled” being a wholly appropriate term, here; seeing as he had to rinse the rotting garbage off still salvageable material. TESTIFY! (BTW, “Jerry” Goldsmith) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/18 "2015-01-19T17:10:05Z")
> [@h.sapiens](#): > > Erich Wolfgang Korngold, a classical composer best know for his film scores, used themes from some of his best-known scores (including “Anthony Adverse” and “The Prince and the Pauper”) in his violin concerto. And his _cello concerto_ was based on music he first wrote for the 1946 film _Deception_. Actually, it’s fairly frequent. **Bach** very often took material from several works to write new ones The _Christmas Oratorio_ is based on several of his secular cantatas for instance. When **Prokofiev** rewrote his _cello concerto_ as the _Symphony-Concerto_ for cello and orchestra, he re-used a lot of the former’s material. But these works have different opus numbers suggesting that he viewed them as separate pieces. Moreover, both works contain a dramatic four-note motif that is also found in his ballet _Romeo and Juliet_. **Dutilleux** refused to have his ballet _Le Loup_ played as a concert piece or to write an orchestral suite based on it but incorporated some snippets from it in _Les Citations_ 40 years later. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/19 "2015-01-19T20:02:51Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > TESTIFY! (BTW, “Jerry” Goldsmith) 😉 [_Joel_, actually.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Goldsmith) Jerry’s son. 'Worked with on First Contact with his father…whom he only outlived by eight years. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2015, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138/20 "2015-01-19T20:36:31Z")
> [@Eddie\_F](#): > > Two words: [James Horner](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sACBslhhWUg). **One** word: Lorde 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composers-recycling-their-music/710138.md?page=2)