Influences

When we experience an author’s work, we often feel the echoes of some earlier work. Sometimes we can be sure that the influence was real, as in the influence of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” on Laurents’ “West Side Story”. In this case, the former was itself an adaptation of a tale by Matteo Bandello, by way of Pierre Boaistuau, by way of Arthur Brooke.

But sometimes these echoes are far more subjective. For example, I often hear strong chains of influence between music from different historical eras, and I am left wondering whether the connection actually existed in the mind of the composer.

Here’s one such chain, listed in forward chronological order:

To be sure, there is great aesthetic change from each piece to the one below it. Just two steps suffice to make the connections disappear. Yet to me the chain of influence from each work to the next feels very strong.

Your mileage may vary.