Mike Leghorn wrote:

>I don't think any less of Beethoven for having borrowed a theme from
>Mozart.

Nor do I.

>Mahler borrowed themes all the time.

Most composers borrow.  That was not my point.

>What really matters is what the composer does with the themes.

Absolutely true.

>Call it myth if you will, but I'll let my ears be the judge, and to my
>ears, the themes from Bastien und Basteinne and the Eroica are identical,
>and not by coincidence.

Your ears are a poor judge - check the score.  The themes are not
identical.

It's a pity that you allow only your ears, and not your mind, be the judge.
I call it a myth because it's impossible - beyond a reasonable doubt, which
is the best one can do outside mathematics - that LvB ever heard or seen
Bastien, and extremely unlikely that he even knew about its existence.  If
he didn't know the work, how could he borrow from it?

People love myths and apocryphal anecdotes probably because most of them
don't require any intellectual (or musical, if music is involved) effort
whatsoever to "understand" them.  It's easy to say, after hearing 2-3
notes from the same chord, that it's a quotation.  From then on, one can
spun one's own fantasies.  It takes a slight effort on the part of your
ears to realize that the similarity ends very soon and that themes based
on a triad chord are plentiful in tonal music.  It also takes a tiny bit of
intellectual effort to find out if the composer in question could have been
familiar with the work in question.  This is, however, beyond many people's
ability.  ANd, more importantly, willingness.

-Margaret Mikulska