Music Plagiarism

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Did it cross the line from inspiration to simple plagiarism? All the musical elements are borrowed/stolen with some rearrangement. 

Leitmotifs

A useful sorting of the motifs in Wagner's Ring cycle with notation and synthesised audio. And a vidoe playlist of the same

Music 'similarity'

I recently discovered that, as an artist, I am 100% similar to the following:

• Humair, Ducret, Chevillon + Eskelin
• Muhal Richard Abrams & Roscoe Mitchell 
• The Fonda / Stevens Group
• Jean-François Bovard Et La Compagnie d'Eustache 

And that the genres I'm working in are Juma, Gammarec, and freepurp1e. Now I have to find out what those are...

The conductor's work

'Folk' Tune 'Arrangements'

Standing on the shoulders of giants such as Bartok or Berio, I recently finished writing an ensemble piece titled Bastard Tunes. The piece was composed with the help of a machine learning system trained on transcriptions of Celtic music. The system produces short melodies that share many characteristics with the style it learned. But, with the possible exception of the fourth Bastard Tune, my piece applies more freedom in the way the system's output is used as compositional material. The piece will be premiered in a concert with other examples of music composed by and with computers.

Johannes, Robert and Clara

Tamás Vásáry manages to capture the intimate nature of this music:

Minimal music

But a totally different kind of minimal:

(Thanks to EnsembleXY for introducing me to this piece)

Music-Sound-Design

Blurring the lines between sound design and music, between diegetic and non:

Bartok - Bagatelles Op. 6

These short piano pieces are wonderful sources for examining innovative harmony (and rhythm, and composition technique, and ...)

Granados - Goyescas

A recording of Granados performing his own music (in 1916 remastered from piano rolls):

Graphic Score

This set displays a variety of approaches to graphic representation of sound. This group effort results in a full 'score' for a fairly extensive composition:

Threnody - Penderecki

An animated score of a seminal work of the 20th century:

Berio

One of the foremost composers of the 20th century. Some recordings available on ubuweb. His folk songs are more then arrangements (and here is Voci a later piece which he subtitled folksongs 2). The series of sequenzas (e.g. viola, guitar) for solo instruments are a fantastic way to learn more about the instruments and imaginative ways to write for them. Coro integrates voices into the orchestra. His Sinfonia, particularly the 3rd movement, was discussed extensively. 

Henry Cowell

A pioneering and influential American composer. Described as "an inventor of sounds". Some of his short piano pieces are particularly striking:

Unwanted Sounds

Christian Marclay:

And on a much lighter note:

Maryanne Amacher

Interesting talk about her sound art and how technology and listening shaped her work:

Spectral Music

Some examples:

• Gerard Grisey: Partiels
• Kaija Saariaho: Verblendungen
• Giacinto Scelsi: Konx-Om-Pax (though it wasn't called spectralism then). 
• Jonathan Harvey: Still. 

François Rose's Perspective of New Music article explains some of the composition methods.

Percussion Music

• Luigi Nono's composition for percussion and live electronics:
• Edgar Varese Ionisation. And an article about the piece: Jean-François Charles - Organization of Scattered Timbral Qualities: A Look at Edgard Varèse's Ionisation.
• Graham Fitkin Hook.

Serialism+

Here is Milton Babbitt's Semi-Simple variations:

 and a jazzed up version of it. The same band also playing some Ligeti.

a 'simple' song

My Funny Valentine