Herbert Pauls, writer, translator, piano instructor
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Anatomy of a Plagiarist

2/12/2016

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A question that naturally arises when contemplating my plagiarism debacle: How does one plagiarize so that most if not all of the new text slips through the watchful eyes of plagiarism detection programs? I have parsed a sample sentence from Bratu's article to show how it is done:

The first phrase,
"Prior to the early romantic generation" is expanded to become "Prior and culminating to the early romantic generation".

In the next phrase,
"of Chopin and Schumann" the list of names is reversed and also includes a new name, "of Schumann, Liszt and Chopin."

The next phrase,
"and during so-called 'classical' times" is left out.

The next phrase is exactly the same:
"music had been considered the most romantic of the arts because"

The items in the next phrase, inset with dashes, are again reversed:
" - unlike sculpture, painting or verbal utterances - " becomes
" - unlike verbal utterance, painting or sculpture - "

The final phrase in this first sentence throws in a synonym and changes the word order:
"it was the medium of human creativity that was best able to express emotion."
becomes
​ "it was the human creativity's best vehicle to express Emotion." 
​

Clearly, it must have taken a lot of time to come up with almost twenty pages of sentences like the one above. First, the plagiarist had to select all the appropriate material from a book almost 500 pages long in order to cut and paste it into a new article. This necessitated a great deal of time spent reading and choosing. Then all the sections had to be reassembled and laid down in a new and sensible order. Finally, everything had to be carefully altered in such a way that it still made some kind of sense.

Bearing the above in mind, it has become abundantly clear to me that it must have taken days if not weeks of intentional work, especially since Bratu's command of English is not strong. The obvious question is this. Why would somebody spend so much time doing this when they could be spending the same time doing their own research? She is obviously capable of it. She earned a Phd in musicology in 2010 and is now an assistant professor. She surely knows how to carry out proper research. Puzzling.

It is also clear that Bratu fully understood and deeply sympathized with my ideas and views on 20th Century music. Moreover, she is a very fine pianist and musician. Like a great many other performers, she has a natural desire to explore 20th Century repertoire along the lines I have suggested. This makes the problem all the more depressing.  

​It is no fun airing this sort of dirty laundry in public, but  it is something I have been strongly advised to do in order to protect half a lifetime of work. If Bratu issues a formal and public apology, I will be happy to accept it and will no longer be compelled to make an issue of it. I sincerely encourage her to do that. 





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Plagiarism

2/9/2016

3 Comments

 
Well, I finally did it. Acting on the advice of an internationally recognized plagiarism expert, I have added a page to this website. It was not something I was particularly anxious to do.

​It has now been a month since I discovered the article which very extensively uses material from my book. But as no proper apology has been forthcoming from the wayward professor who accomplished that task, it was deemed necessary to expose the problem in a more public way, simply as a tool of intellectual protection. Read about it here. A short discussion in an online forum with some encouraging voices of support can be found here.

Happily, the Dean of Fine Arts at Ovidius University in Constanta, Romania, acknowledged the problem a couple of weeks ago and promised to submit the case to higher academic authorities for investigation. No word on how long that will take. 

I guess we'll see what happens...
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Norman Lebrecht comes to Winnipeg

10/27/2015

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The orchestral scene in Winnipeg is currently abuzz with Mahlerfest, which has on the agenda performances of no less than three symphonies, including a rare performance of the Tenth. The composer never lived to finish this symphony except for the long and magnificent Adagio first movement. The work has seen a number of performing versions over the last few decades but will be heard at Mahlerfest in its first ever completion, which was prepared by the great Mahler scholar Deryck Cooke back in the 1960s, and is still the standard version. 

As part of the festival, Winnipeg will also have the honour of hosting the well-known writer, critic, scholar, lexicographer, and Mahler expert Norman Lebrecht. It is no exaggeration to say that Lebrecht is one of the most recognizable names in the classical music world today. He has written many books, among them The Maestro Myth, a useful, perceptive, and somewhat controversial study of how the power of conductors has grown over the centuries. In general, he does not hesitate to tackle head on some of the graver institutional and financial problems besetting the classical world today, which has made him something of a Cassandra figure among commentators. In terms of Mahler, Lebrecht has published Mahler Remembered, a very important compilation of observations written by people who knew the composer.There is also his book Why Mahler?, which will also be the title of a lecture he will be giving while here in Winnipeg.

Today, Lebrecht continues to occupy a central position in the classical music world through his prolific blog Slippedisc, which has a readership, unequaled in his field, of well over a million, and which offers an incredible variety of newsworthy items, many of which stimulate vigorous discussion. Due to his vast network of connections in the music world - connections which he has built up over his long career - he seems to have regular access to an almost infinite supply of behind-the-scenes information (along with a little gossip here and there, perhaps) which makes his blog essential reading for anyone in the business whether or not one agrees with his standpoints (and many do take issue with him from time to time).

Although, Lebrecht may sometimes be criticized for his strong opinions, he cannot easily be dismissed. Because of his strong and forceful journalistic presence, it is sometimes forgotten that his musical background also includes formidable scholarly depth. And it does not hurt that the man writes with dazzling flair and elegance, which alone places him head and shoulders above most of his colleagues, including those in the academic world. I for one will be looking forward to his visit. 
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Welcome!

10/27/2015

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Hello and welcome to my new website. In my blog, I will be offering thoughts on various issues, mainly related to music. I will talk about music history, the piano, pedagogical concerns, and recordings (both new and historical). 

Despite the often discussed financial troubles of the classical music business in 21st-Century North America and Europe, music lovers and musicians still paradoxically live in a time of plenty. Virtually the entire history of recorded sound is easily available at the click of a mouse to anyone in the world with an internet connection. Orchestras, too, despite a somewhat tenuous financial future in many cases, have never been more plentiful in number or of better overall quality. Today, there are hundreds, if not thousands of orchestras around the world able to dispatch a difficult Strauss tone poem with ease. A century and a half ago that number amounted to little more than a mere handful. Also, there have never been more young musicians wanting to form ensembles such as string quartets. 

And, despite an apparently shrinking audience, more young musicians than ever are ambitious about learning the craft. Conservatories and university music departments on several continents are overflowing with excellent students. There are now over 500 international piano competitions, each with dozens or even hundreds of prospective entrants, all of whom have mastered large swaths of the most difficult literature. The mind boggles.

Why is that? For many observers nowadays, this is a foolhardy situation, with countless highly trained instrumentalists and singers having, at best, only a modest income to look forward to. But seen in a more positive light, it may also mean that the music-making impulse, despite financial hardship, is not easily quelled. And so, my intention is not to pronounce a a prolonged funeral oration on what once was, although I am very aware of the extent and nature of the problems in the business. Rather, it is to take joy and pleasure in what exists, and to share that joy with anyone who cares to join in. 

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    Herbert Pauls

    Winnipeg-based writer and music teacher

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