# Tribute or plagiarism?



## fortyfourcaliber (Aug 6, 2012)

play metal. If I wrote a song where somewhere in the middle I only once played a phrase of the DSCH motif and then the rest of the song was my own material, would that be plagiarism?

For one, I feel like that sequence of notes should be fair game. Surely people have used it many times without even knowing Shostakovich.

Also, the band Necrophagist has a song with an excerpt from Prokiev's Dance of the Knights.

Should I/can I do it???


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Of course you can--and you'd be in good company:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSCH_motif

Happy composing!


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

There's nothing morally wrong with using material from the music of others to make something new. If its good enough for Beethoven, its good enough for anybody.

Even on a legal ground you should be safe because you can't really copyright such a small idea, only a melody can be. But yeah, don't feel bad about it. Just create something you are happy with and proud of. I composed a piece entirely from fragments of others' music, and I've written pieces that quote themes and phrases by Haydn and Wagner. Musical quotation (and the more modern variation sampling) is an older-than-dirt compositional technique that goes all the way back to medieval plainchants and organum. Hell, Shostakovich did that plenty himself, so don't sweat it at all


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