Greetings to all! I'm a Classical music buff and at present am particularly involved in listening to Rachmaninoff and Sebelius.

At any rate, a friend of mine who is more into popular music mentioned that he heard a classical piece which had the five-note motif that is heard in Don McLean's "Vincent" - the notes are the based on the 2nd inversion of a Major 6th chord ("starry starry night") with the second note of the scale thrown in (in C - G A C D E).

I know lots of pop composers have borrowed motifs from the classics (Eric Carmen most notably; and isn't Groovy Kind of Love from Clementi? ) but I wasn't sure about this. It's such a common figure (pentatonic scale in a way) but my friend instantly recognized it in terms of how it followed the rhythm pretty closely. He's not that well versed in composers and didn't catch the info on the radio broadcast.

There may be many works that use it but off the top of my head I can't think of them. Perhaps I'm blocking it!

Any insights?

Great forum, btw!!!

There's a particular song by The Temptations which immediately comes to mind that follows the G-A-C-D progression- similar to the one you mentioned, but sans the E.

Hotel California uses some harmonic progressions that resemble ones at the final movement of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy.

Only that all western genres share the same scales and modalities so it's no surprise that many pops appear to borrow classics and vice versa. For every phrase in a pop song I'll bet you can find it in some classical work somewhere, maybe rhythmically disguised but it's there.

you say that you are interested in Sibelius's music, but apparently you can't spell his name right.

Ever considered the option of using capital letters at the begining of each sentence, Gustav?

And get the grammar right. It's "Sibelius' music"

Are you enjoying the positive externalities here, Gustav? You came in for musical thoughts and you are also getting the education on grammar first graders are supposed to receive. But for free!.

Sorry about the spelling error! Typing fast and not checking. My apologies, but it doesn't mean I haven't appreciated his work. Anyway, thanks to all who have responded to my topic.

sorry, but English is not my first language. That being said. Where is the musical thoughts? I don't see them. Maybe you can point me to where these "musical thoughts" are, did you came up with them?

My dear Gustav,

Someone said something that you should remember sometimes:

"Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"

Now that's something clever.