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It might perhaps be added that Dr Kuhac, the highest authority
on Croatian folk-song, asserted in an article contributed to the
Croatian Review (1893) that the Austrian National Hymn was based
on a Croatian popular air. In reviewing Kuhac's collection of
Croatian melodies, a work in four volumes, containing 1600
examples, Dr Reimann signifies his agreement with Kuhac, and
adds that Haydn employed Croatian themes not only in "God
preserve the Emperor," but in many passages of his other works.
These statements must not be taken too seriously. Handel purloined
wholesale from brother composers and said nothing about it. The
artistic morality of Haydn's age was different, and, knowing his
character as we do, we may be perfectly sure that if he had of
set purpose introduced into any of his compositions music which
was not his own he would, in some way or other, have acknowledged
the debt. This hunting for plagiarisms which are not plagiarisms
at all but mere coincidences--coincidences which are and must be
inevitable--is fast becoming a nuisance, and it is the duty of
every serious writer to discredit the practice. The composer of
"The Creation" had no need to borrow his melodies from any
source.
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