I don't often disagree with Deryk Barker, but here it is:

>Because borrowing within a larger piece is one thing, but borrowing
>your entire style is another.

I really don't believe it matters.  I think Vainberg a great composer,
but his style comes from Shostakovich.  I often have difficulty in
"drop-the-needle" games trying to separate Mozart, Haydn, and early
Beethoven, if I don't know the works beforehand.

Surely, what counts is the quality of the work itself, not where the
composer got his style from.  Quality, of course, is in the mind of the
hearer.  It's still possible to dislike McCartney's classical studies, even
if they weren't derivative, just as it's possible to like them, even if
they are.

I've not heard the latest McCartney foray, but you can bet I'm interested.

Steve Schwartz