# Similar music



## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

A thread for music that sounds similar to you. *Post two (or more?) pieces, movements, or measures of music that resemble one another according to your ears.* The similarities may be intentional, maybe unintended. Maybe you have your own theory for why they sound the same, maybe it is grounded in a critic's assertion. Maybe the sameness arises in its structure, rather than melody; or it sounds the same in purpose, rather than the objective ordering of notes.

We often hear similarities between music, and rarely ever commit to _why_ the sounds resemble one another (sure, the scores help). Let us see if we are alone in our aural instincts.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

It's hard to think of entire pieces that resemble each other unless we're in the world of pop, but there are plenty of snippets phrases and motifs that sound alike.

I always thought the Brahms Serenade No. 1 in D, part 5 Scherzo at about 37:36 here, sounds a lot like this folk song we've all heard at about 0:30 here in this least heinous version I could find. It's the contour of the melody and the same intervals somewhat.

There is of course a "Three Blind Mice" motif somewhere in Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, which I think is intentional, and sometimes I hear Woody Woodpecker's laugh in one of the movements, almost certainly unintentional. Again these are just melodic contours sharing some of the same intervals.


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## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

Two scherzi that inspired this thread:


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## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

Oh, and this one has always frustrated me, only because I have no evidence that *Hindemith *intentionally did this, or it just circumstantially sounds, well, like a quote...

String Quartet 2 - at ~12:05





Beethoven, String Quartet 10 - opening


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## Le Peel (May 15, 2015)




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## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

Le Peel said:


> ...


Waaaaah. Amazing.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Michael Haydn's Requiem of 1771:






I don't think I need to say what other requiem it reminds me of, do I?


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## AdmiralSilver (Sep 28, 2013)

Bartok's Piano Concerto #1
1st movement
5:50





Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto #3
1st movement
7:34


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## Guest (Aug 30, 2015)

Penderecki - String Quartet no 3.
Coates - String Quartet no 4.

Both have sections which musicologists call a runter-tunter thing going on.
Which I'm a sucker for!


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

Little fragments/snippets I can remember being struck by:

The beginning of T & I, and the beginning of Romeo Alone from Berlioz' Romeo and Juliet.











Opening theme from Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony (transformed numerous times later in the work), Liszt's theme in Les Preludes (especially one specific transformation of it)










 (4:09)

Main theme in Liszt's Vallee d'Obermann and theme from Lengsky's Aria in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.





 (right at the start)





 (0:38)

Opening to Wagner's Parsifal and opening to Liszt's Bells of Strasbourg Cathedral (the first half of the Wagner theme).











Liszt also uses this theme in a short work after Wagner's death, as well as the bell motif, and creates a piece of religious consolation regarding his friend's death.






Beginning of Brahms German Requiem and certain theme from Harry Potter series





 (from 0:08)





 (6:08)

Doctor Who main theme and theme from Alkan's Grande Sonate, 2nd Movement:





 (0:25)





 (0:09)


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

I'm only playing in this first one, so please don't get upset. There is some coincidental similarity between this lovely theme in Mahlers' 8th symphony (from 4:22)...






...and this theme from a song in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (from 0:44)






More seriously, and still with Mahler, I find a real similarity between the recurring theme of his 6th Symphony (from 16:08 especially)...






...and the opening theme to Brahms' 3rd Symphony (from the start).


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

Might I also mention the little theme on the woodwind in the 3rd movement of Mahler's 9th and the theme from ET...?





 (from 14:03)


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

The lovely Symphony No.1 'Pan' by Dutch composer Willem Pijper (or is it Mahler...?)






The soundtrack to the film 'The Land Before Time' by James Horner (or is it Prokofiev...?)





 (forget track 4)


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## Aleksandar (Feb 21, 2015)

Bruch violin concerto 3rd movement and Brahms violin concerto 3rd movement always sounded kind of similar to me.


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