Musical plagiarism was an accepted practice in the 17th and 18th centuries. In fact, is was considered more of an homage.
When discovering the works of Vivaldi, Bach went to work on rewriting them in his own style. No lawsuits were filed.
Here's a great example. Joseph Haydn wrote these very unique eight notes to begin the menuet of his 21st symphony, 1764:
Now let's skip ahead to our litigious age where George Harrison's My Sweet Lord and many other accusations of copyright violations were settled in court.
I only provide two examples here, though they differ in the basic intricacies of copyright law.
In this first example, Keith Jarrett laid down a funky little riff based on only two chords (Long As You Know You're Living Yours), but listen to the similarity in the rhythm:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfVSLdfP1Y8]
The following case is much different. Bill Evans's Peace Piece consists of only two chords (CMaj7 / Gsus9):
The Lady Blackbird progression sounds like it has an extra note or harmonic that gives a more discordant sound? Is that just in the recording, or is there a musical difference?
Posted by: James | April 25, 2023 at 04:12 PM
You might be hearing the electric bass, but I believe she's using the exact same two chords: CMaj7/Gsus9
Posted by: Lewis Saul | April 25, 2023 at 07:33 PM