This is for those of you, if any, who might be "quotation freaks" ...

Listening to George Gershwin's piano concerto in F major today, at
several points I was struck by the similarity of one particular passage
to a part of the theme music to the old Perry Mason TV series.  Has
anyone noticed this, and if so, how striking do you consider the similarity?
The duration of the "quote" is quite short (on the order of a few seconds),
so it could be a coincidence, but it made me take notice several times.
The portion in the TV series music is near the end of it, a sort of
bridge.  The part I am talking about lasts about 6 seconds; it is here:

   http://204.196.65.190/~rmabry/music/perry-gershwin.mp3

(I snipped it from a file I found a file on the web here:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~jsimko/hotlinks.htm)

The corresponding part in the Gershwin starts at about 5:40 into the
third movement on this Kathryn Selby performance, available on Naxos
(8.550295 GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue / Piano Concerto) and lasts about
20 seconds.  If you can play files from Naxos, go here and slide the
seek bar to 5:40 (aint the web cool?):

http://theatre.hnh.com/naxosmusicstation/msaudio/asx/createasx.asp?L_code=2714
11_03&item_code=8.550295

(This part is also at around 3:25 of the 3rd movement on a disk I have
of Oscar Levant playing Gershwin.  Yes, I know, I have too much time on
my hands.)

Of course, the Gershwin precedes the Perry Mason music: the former was
written in 1925; the latter by Fred Steiner, in 1957, titled "Park Avenue
Beat".

Actually, while listening to the concerto, I was even more reminded of
Gershwin by Gershwin --- there were numerous allusions (or illusions)
to Rhaposdy in Blue (1924), but this isn't surprising.

Rick Mabry
Shreveport, LA