Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16

Three days ago, I listened to Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16.  In the third movement, there was a part that reminded me of Beethoven's 5th Symphony.  So I looked up the scores and compared the two pieces (that's what took so long between first hearing this and writing a post about it - I'm not very good at reading music).

On the left are the first two bars of the 4th movement of Beethoven's 5th symphony.  On the right are some measures from the 3rd movement of Grieg's Piano Concerto.  Both of these - the first measure and a half of Beethoven's 5th Symphony and the 69th and half of the 70th measure of Grieg's Piano Concerto - use inversions of C major in escalating the melody.  Beethoven does this with a variety of instruments (although I've shown only a few), and Grieg does it with just the piano, but they're both doing the same thing.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E flat major ("Eroica")

I listened to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E flat major (“Eroica”) this morning, and I noticed that it ends the same way that it starts.  I think one of the ending notes is even the same note as the starting notes.  In any case, this made me think of the beginning and ending of the Moody Blues’ Days of Future Passed.  I haven’t verified this yet, but I’m pretty sure that the gong that ends the album also starts the album (although it’s reversed).

I’m not very knowledgeable about the genesis of Days of Future Passed, but I think originally, Decca had wanted to try some new recording technique with Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony before the Moody Blues were allowed to do their album.  Between that and the nature of the musical interludes (which can be symphonic at times), it would make sense that the opening and ending sounds were taken from Beethoven’s paradigm.  That’s purely conjecture though.  I don’t even know if Beethoven was the first to end something the same way he started it, and I wouldn’t be too confident in saying he was.

Still, regardless of who influenced whom and whether it was influence or coincidence, the same musical idea is employed here.  It’s just that Beethoven did it purely with notes and the Moody Blues did it by reversing the tape.

Electric Light Orchestra's "All Over the World"

I listened to Electric Light Orchestra’s All Over the World:  The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra early this morning, and I discovered something interesting.

I already wrote a post about how Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen” probably inspired Martha and the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street” as far as the catalogue of places, and I think ELO’s “All Over the World” takes it a step further.

"Sweet Little Sixteen" lists a bunch of cities in the United States, and "All Over the World" expands this and lists a bunch of international cities.  Where "Sweet Little Sixteen" includes places like Boston, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and New Orleans, "All Over the World" includes places like Detroit, LA, London, Hamburg, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, and Monte Carlo.  (There are others, but I can’t quite make them out.)

I considered the possibility that this was just a coincidence, but there are links between Chuck Berry and ELO.  ELO covered Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven” and mention him by name in “Rockaria!”  So I’m fairly certain that the catalogue of places in “All Over the World” is a conscious expansion of what Chuck Berry did in “Sweet Little Sixteen.”

I think there are a fair amount of other references in ELO’s work - both to other musicians (they quote Beethoven in both “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Rockaria!”) and to themselves.  But I feel that that’s something I should spend some concentrated effort on before I write a post about it.