2012 News Milestone No. 10

Web-born Plagiarism Charges Become a Brushfire 
A Grammy Award-winning composer and MacArthur Fellow was accused by respected musicians of borrowing huge chunks of material they recognized as belonging to a mutual musician friend. Before the matter could be clarified, the incident had taken on an Internet life of its own, with alarming accusations of habitual plagiarism and creative impotence piling on.

Impact: The brouhaha started in February at a concert by the Oregon Symphony, one of many orchestras that had commissioned a nine-minute Golijov overture called Siderius to honor longtime music industry professional Henry Fogel. Siderius had been making the rounds for five months, but on this occasion it was recognized by sharp ears as substantially the same as Barbeich, a piece for accordion and ensemble by Michael Ward-Bergeman.

Current status: Ward-Bergeman and Golijov are close friends. They stated their separate works derived from jointly created music for Francis Ford Coppola's movie Tetro. Both deemed the music to beautiful to leave on the cutting-room floor, so they agreed to share it.

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