To write the music for “Because” (off Abbey Road), John Lennon said he took the notes for Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and played them in reverse order.
Are there other examples of composers stealing from other composers in exactly this way?
(Bonus questions: How likely is it that a well-loved piece of music also sounds great when played backwards? And what are the chances that some listener out there will catch on to such a theft?)
Playing notes in reverse order, upside-down, etc. is a totally standard musical technique:
Wikipedia says
According to Willi Apel, the earliest example of retrograde in music is the 13th century clausula, Nusmido, in which the tenor has the liturgical melody “Dominus” in retrograde
