Is there Nothing New (Musically) Under the Sun?

Cafe Society
1

In an earlier thread, it was revealed that John Williams (composer) was not averse to borrowing/stealing earlier composer’s works, and incorporating them into his own compositions.
Doesn’t this happen all the time?
It seems to me, that just about every chord/tune /song that can be conceived has been written down.
So do modern composers dig through forgotten music of the 1890’s-1940’s, and repolish the old stuff?

2

Going to move this to Cafe Society for you.

3

There are two ways of looking at this:

  1. Take an example: there are seven notes in the diatonic scale. In two bars comprising quarter notes, there are 5,764,801 different melodies. And that’s the simplest case: it ignores the chromatic notes; and changes in harmony, rhythm, phrasing etc… all the subtle things that dress up a melody. So, essentially there is an unlimited supply of melodies out there.

but…

  1. In Western Music there are only a few ways of doing anything:
  • only a handful of harmonies and standard progressions.
  • melodies are mainly around the 1,3 and 5 of the scale… they tend to start on those notes, fall back to them after moving through passing notes, and end on them.
  • melodies really consist of simple motifs tacked together with a cadence on the end. Motifs are usually 2-4 notes.

So, yes, I agree that every thing has already been done. Especially when you factor in the sheer number of compositions. We are exposed to the tip of the iceberg… I bet you every day sees a thousand country songs written. Seriously.

4

I don’t think this is limited to music.

Tell me a subject you don’t think anybody’s painted. Now go Google it. We can weep for the future together.

It’s one of the weird things about the Internet; now that everybody can publish everything instantly, it’s kinda apparent how much of everything there is.

5

If you stick to the standard Western scale with an octave divided into 12 semitones, most pleasing combinations of notes have been used many times before. However, you can use an alternate tuning system that divides the octave into more notes and quickly come up with an unlimited number of brand new melodies. The only problem is that the music will sound weird to most people and the audience will be extremely limited.

6

Do modern composers dig through forgotten music in order to repolish? Or are there modern composers who just have an interest on old stuff and find things that inspire them? I’m not making judgment on either approach, but I do think there’s a distinction.