Deryk Barker wrote:

>Please do not impute motivations to me.  Yes many great composers borrowed
>melodies from elsewhere, but that is not at all the same thing.

Not at all the same thing?? Your opinion on their music is great but here
you tell me it is entirely different for McCartney to do the same.  I would
just like to hear your reasoning behind that standpoint.  I guess I am just
curious about how one comes to such a standpoint.  I am curious to hear
from someone who feels it is entirely different for McCartney to borrow
from or sound like someone else than it is for Bach or Brahms to borrow
from or sound like someone else.

>When McCartney set out to write "classical"  music he knew we was
>entering a crowded field, but chose to do it. As a critic I would not
>be doing my job if I failed to point out how derivative much of it is.

I suppose you are doing your job and I have not a thing against that.
I do have a question about the end of this quote.  One can look at a
composer and find pieces from others in his/her work.  This is fairly
regular occurrence.  However, I was reading a post by a fellow list member
who described his affection for Robert Simpson's 9th symphony.  The list
member pointed out the different musical "quotes" and borrowings he heard
in the work but didn't say one BAD thing about it regarding this musical
borrowing.  What's the big deal about finding stylistic similarities
between McCartney's works and others' works?

>>...  Paul McCartney was ALREADY a pop icon and so he was and will be
>>degraded for even entertaining the thought of wading into the classical
>>pool.  Not really fair to Paul.  Sure he is rich and famous but he can
>>never attain a fair, listening audience with a ridiculous prevailing
>>attitude such as this.
>
>So why did he do it? He didn't need the fame or the fortune.

Hey, I'm a composer and I am not writing music for fame or fortune.
I don't think any of the true greats started writing music for fame and
fortune.  I think they wrote, just as I've written, to express myself
through my art.  But that is really beside the point.  Paul McCartney had
a heavy interest in classical music from even the early/mid days of the
Beatles.  He was very much into music of the Baroque (Bach in particular).
It was with this affection for early music that he used a clavichord on
"Cry for No One" and Baroque sounding trumpet on "Penny Lane" Other
Beatles songs are accompanied by harp ("She's Leaving Home") and some with
harpsichord ("Fixing a Hole").  Classical music was no newly found love of
Paul McCartney.  It was only later in his life that he attempted to write
major works in the genre.  I think it is perfectly acceptable to think that
Paul McCartney is writing classical music because he wants to, because he
loves classical music.  I would sincerely hope he is writing because he
wants to and not for some other reason.  It's a wonderful world we live in
that a person can do whatever they want if they really have the desire in
their hearts.

-Wes Crone