John White ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>(6) The opening theme of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony seems to have been
>lifted from one of Carl Friedrich Abel's symphonies (was it Op9, No 6?)
>Beethoven didn't hesitate to recycle his own themes when it suited him; as
>in case of the main tune in the finale of the same symphony, which is well
>known to have been lifted from his earlier Prometheus ballet music and was
>also used for a set of piano variations.

Never mind the tune, he reproduced *exactly* the Kontretanze which also
emplyed the tune - in the symphony it's the first appearnace of the whole
theme, as opposed to merely the bass, which the first few variations are
on.

>(7) Mahler's First Symphony bears striking resemblances, certainly in style
>if not in thematic content, to his friend Hans Rott's E major Symphony,
>Completed 8 years earlier.  Sadly, Rott died in 1884 in his mid 20s.

Now I'm afraid I can't agree with this.  There are moments in Rott's
symphony which resemble Mahler, there are moments which resemble Bruckner
and others which resemble Brahms.

But I don't think it's anything like as original as Mahler's Das klagende
Lied, written a decade before his first symphony.  BTW, there is no
evidence I'm aware of that Mahler was actually familiar with the score to
Rott's symphony before he borrowed it around 1900.

Deryk Barker
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