Donald Satz <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>I often disagree with Mike's views, but I feel sympatico with him
>concerning the trust that a person places in his/her ears.

The problem in this case is not Mr Leghorn's ear, but his ability to
process what that ear picks up.  Anybody can hear these coincidences,
but to build critical edifices on such things is irrational and tedious.

He hasn't taken Don's point about the common stock of thematic material
(a variation on one I made before, but to which Mr Leghorn chose not to
lend his ears), and which applies as much to Rococo as to Baroque tags.
Mozart didn't invent this little theme any more than Beethoven.

Even if Beethoven had heard the 'Bastien' overture (which is practically
impossible, as the piece was not performed publicly in Mozart's lifetime,
and there's no evidence of it being performed or published during
Beethoven's) only a skewed modern aesthetic which puts originality at the
top of the list of desirable qualities in a composer is going to try to
make anything significant of it.

It's a reverse take on those romantic old Handelian scholars such as Newman
Flower, who covered up the fact that GFH borrowed much of his material from
Telemann, Scarlatti and the rest, on the ground that it was theft, and that
theft made Handel somehow less of a genius.

In fact, it's what Handel does with the common stock that makes him
so great.  The same, of course, is true for Beethoven's extraordinary
exploration of this trivial little tag.  If Mozart's use of it had been
anything other than that of a clever twelve year old, then there might be
something interesting to say about the coincidence.  He didn't, and there
isn't.

Christopher Webber,  Blackheath, London,  UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!"