Super Mario Galaxy Main Theme a PLAGIARISM?!

[KefkaticFanatic]

Also, Space Dementia by Muse is heavily based off of Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto.  Matt Bellamy is influenced by a lot of classical.  Part of the reason I love Muse.

[Clanker37]

Grunty's Theme is Teddy Bear's Picnic, but Kirkhope made it to awesome for the Teddy Bear's Picnic people to care.

Besides The Final Battle music in Banjo-Kazooie and Nuts & Bolts is way to epic to be considered plagiarism

[master_gamer38]

It could even be subconscious.  A composer could have heard the tune at one point in time, and in their head they think of the music and just add it in along with everything else.

I've been bored and took the moment to attempt to compose. I've gone and written about 3 minutes of music and I love it. Then a little bit later, I realise I just subconsciously transcribed a song that I've had stuck in my head for a few days.

For example, I've halfway transcribed this song, with no intent to use its melodies. I guess it was just in my head.

[electron2003]

When I first listended to the third movement of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Violin Concerto I noticed a significant similarity to the
Super Mario Galaxy Main Theme:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vniCuX5eak

From 1:12 to 1:26 both the key sig. and the notes are the same! Only the rhythm is slightly different and the SMG Main Theme being an octave higher. From 4:44 to 5:02, there is the big reprise of that theme, just in F Major, but the orchestration with the brass section playing the melody gives the polish to concern that this theme is a plagiarism made by Koji Kondo.

Compare it to the arrangements of that theme on the site and with the "original" here, the theme also is in SMG 2, as the soundtrack is mostly made from variations of the first game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqihUzi_714 (first seconds)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppDiC7QThkg

While searching for plagiarism, I stumbled on this post.  It is old as hell but I was still compelled into creating an account just to reply to the above quote because your comment seriously bugged me.  I am a music major with perfect pitch. The melody that played in the time frame you specified for the above concerto is NOT the same note nor the same key signature as the game's orchestral intro.  As indicated in the video, the concerto is played on the B flat scale on 2/4 time signature, starting on the B flat note > F > E natural > C > D.  In the game's title intro, after the orchestra transitions from E flat scale to B natural scale, the piano plays a B natural on the down beat of each trill.  It quickly establishes a tempo, playing a melody from B > F# > C# > F# > F > C# > D#.  This is all naturally resolved on a 4/4 time signature (tempo starts roughly around 136 and then plays around 144...68 and 77 respectively if it is played in cut time).   The concerto's heavy fanfare begin an eighth note beat before the start of the measure on C with the first quarter note hitting F > C > B natural (dotted quarter note) > G (eighth note) > A (next measure).  The game's fanfare intro is initally played on the E flat key signature in 4/4, starting with a trill to an E flat on the down beat > falling to B flat > climb to E flat > B flat on last quarter note then following with an A > F > G using 2 eight notes and dotted half respectively in the next measure.

Having said that, while it sounds quite similar (as with many other pieces of music out there these days), I would hardly classify this as plagiarism.  Blatant usage of the same time signatures, key signatures, and identical note placement of a rather long passage (how long is up for argument) from an original work is what I would consider to be a problem.  We're nitpicking roughly 4 measures of similarity that completely diverges from one another very quickly which hardly amounts to much plagiarism.  There are worse examples out there.

Edit: Fixed Typo (I hate being a perfectionist sometimes ~.~)

[Olimar12345]

Thank you, this has been bugging me night and day/sarcasm

[electron2003]

Thank you, this has been bugging me night and day/sarcasm

lulz.  Apologies for bumping a necro topic, indeed.  But I'll definitely bite at any possible opportunity to correct a poor trained ear like this if it came off as fact if I see it XD

[JDMEK5]

I heard read somewhere that if a piece is still around for X-hundred (or so) number of years after the composer's demise, the copyrights are removed. (Unless renewed by an alternate source)

*Replace X with an approximate number that I've forgotten after all this time

Everfrost Peak from Diddy Kong Racing is actually a spanish folk song. Lyrics and all. (Remixed by David Wise)
My spanish mother's forgotten it though..

[Olimar12345]

*^Ever gotten star-power in super mario land? :J

[JDMEK5]

No..... Why? Would I know it?

EDIT: Oh.. Oh, ah.. Ah. Yes. The can can... I thought about learning that on piano at one time...