One piece is even quoted backwards as a palindrome. The quotes are distorted and contorted in tempo, meter, and context. But don’t expect to hum along to familiar tunes. This musical collage “pilfers phrases from familiar works in the classical canon to dazzling effect.” Indeed, it is constructed entirely of quotations. I recently had the pleasure of hearing the Oregon Symphony (at the wonderful new Reser Center in Beaverton) performing Ted Hearne’s Palindrome for Andrew Norman, which is the second movement of Hearne’s The Law of Mosaics. Classical music is similarly chock-full of examples of one composer taking from another to make something new.

Dealing with a similar issue, a jury recently found that Ed Sheeran’s song Thinking Out Loud did not violate copyright by using the same four-chord progression that Ed Townsend and Marvin Gaye used in Let’s Get It On. As I have commented in previous letters, it is a case with potentially disruptive implications for American art. Supreme Court is deliberating whether Andy Warhol’s Prince series violates the copyright of the photographer Lynn Goldsmith. Left: Lynn Goldsmith’s “ Prince.” Right: Andy Warhol’s “Prince.”Īs I write these words, the U.S. But before we take an imaginary seat in a darkened theater in 1945, let’s briefly visit the quotation conundrum, that maze of tension between copyright law and creative instinct in a world where nothing is truly original. Although Peterson Sapp may at times quote directly from the films, these paintings more generally reflect how deeply she has absorbed the atmosphere and vocabulary of the Noir genre. Artist Leslie Peterson Sapp does both in her Film Noir collage-paintings, a selection of which are on exhibit through May 31 st at Portland’s Arrowood Restaurant.

Read pleasure of a dark prince