Hello Tyuan!

No, Bernstein didn't copy himself. What he did was reuse a theme he composed for SATURN 3 but that wasn't used in that film. This is not an uncommon practice among composers. When they create a good theme that is rejected or remains out of the movie, sometimes they recycle that material for another movie.

It is the same case that Jerry Goldsmith and his beautiful theme for THE RUSSIA HOUSE, that was formerly composed for ALIEN NATION, but rejected.

A good example of selfcopy would be the main theme from ZULU, that John Barry used again in CRY THE BELOVED COUNTRY. But, who cares? Bernstein, Goldsmith, Barry... are among the greatest film composers of all time. Even the best classical composers or the most famous painters used to copy themselves. How many Sunflowers painted van Gogh? I wish I had one on my wall...

Best regards,
Angel

angeldibujo, June 18, 2007; 8:16 PM

You can read in the Saturn 3 CD booklet that the music was dropped; "...It also may sound
familiar, because Bernstein later applied the same music to the "Taarna" segment of the
animated anthology Heavy Metal - where he set the melody in a heroic mode for the story of a
female warrior fighting futuristic barbarians on a distant planet."

Probably the most notorious re-user of older material and themes is Philippe Sarde. The list is
endless of his re-processed scores taken from older films, sometimes hardly a note is changed.

chris, June 19, 2007; 8:21 AM

Oh! I have not read the booklet, you're right!! ^__^;;

tyuan74, June 19, 2007; 9:16 AM

couvee,

I'd love to have a listing of the scores that Philippe Sarde rehashed so I can listen to those myself.

Thank you.

delerue, June 19, 2007; 5:15 PM

Leonard Rosenman's theme from REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE is almost IDENTICAL to his later theme from MAKING LOVE almost 30 years later!

kriegerg69, June 25, 2007; 3:15 AM

Nino Rota nearly always re-used older themes of his.

philkws, July 18, 2007; 12:25 PM