New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1928-05-22
TIL, PATERNITY OF
POPULAR TUNES

the city and RECALLED many an audi
ence with illustrations at the piano
popular tunes apparently are snatch
cd from the classics. Some OF the
popular tunes man ufactured in Tin
Pan Alley, in truth, bear such a
strong resemblance to great music Of
the past. the tunes merely being
'jazzed up with more peppery
accompaniment, that it is easy to
make the commercial composers of
Broadway look like tune purloners,
The doctors most horrible ex-
ample was the Yes. We Have No
Bananas which in its short chorus
leans heavily on four tunes hat have
gone previously. 1t opens with a
short strain from the "Hallelujah"
chorus of Handel and then every few
bars is something else from some
thing else. Yet We are not convinc-
ed that the two poetasters of music
who wrote this ditty consciously
stole anything from the classic
masters. We long ago came to this
conclusion because we feel confident
that tho 'i11,Jciojn am f1,c,y
represent don't know thing about
the classics. What these two fellows
did, in our opinion, was merely TO al
low their memories to do the work
for them; they fell victim to the
snares that all good composers
studiously try to avoid-that of per-
hitting their sub conscious mind to
dictate tunes which Turk there,
which were soaked in some time long
in the past and fool them into think
ing they are original tunes. Besides.
the law of copyright holds that a
tuuC that 10 IihC pllotllVl IoI INC
length of only one or two bars is
not stealing it; the law holds that
such things are likely to happen.
Considering the large number OF
tunes in the classics which are
similar, though written by different
Il AL oet1X
cur with Richard Wagner when he
said that it is nearly impossible to
write an entirely original tune, and
that is one reason why he depended
so much for his success upon conf
plexities of harmony and originality
in the handling of his orchestral re-
sources.
When one comes to the more
prominent contemporary composers,
those supposed to possess musician
ship, the case is different. Writers of
operettas, for instance. are supposed
TO stand high as musicians; at least,
that was the case until comparative
ly recent years when the so-called
revues' began to undermine the
| importance of the music that wae
needed as a background for the
''folies" on the stage.
No one has ever been able to point
| the finger Of plagiarism toward the
music Of Sir Arthur Sullivan, of Gil.
bert and Sullivan fame. The music
of "rhe Mikado," and the Others
from these two classic operetta com.
posers, though light and lightsome
/ is not reminiscent of classic tune:
speeded up. The same holds true O
our own Victor Herbert, whose work:
had individuality and a certain in
cisiycncss that make sundry revue
operettas blink into insignlficance.
One need only take to one of the
more recent offerings. What abou
Rudolph F'riml's highly successful
Rose Marie ." The main song hit /
the Indian Love Call" which wa
the very first tune played from
/ VITO. and has been broadcast hun
dreds Of times since. Thousands o
popular opcretta fans regard it as ;
wonderful melody, and at Parsoni
il always got numerous cncores.
Bllt when We compare this melod,
with the famous introduction to tn,
third act of "Lohcngrin," by Rich
ard Wagner one slumps PROSTATE il
n chair Here is a similarity of tun
that extends for more than one o
two bars. the only difference bcin;
that Wagner has the tune in HE has
while F'rinl has il in the treble and
reversing tho usual process. th'
Friml Ncvsion il slower than tn,
allegro of Wagner. Yet We would no
be willing TO claim that l'riml stol
his star tune from Wagner; candid.
nobody knows except triml and h
would nat urallv deny il. Friml ma.
simply have thought he vas writing