Chariots of Fire (instrumental), Plagiarism_case

Chariots of Fire (instrumental), Plagiarism_case

Vangelis was accused of plagiarising "Chariots of Fire" from a piece by fellow Greek composer Stavros Logaridis called "City of Violets". Vangelis won in court by (a) persuading the judge that he had had no opportunity to hear Logaridis's piece before he composed "Chariots of Fire"; and (b) demonstrating to the judge's satisfaction that the key musical sequence described as “the turn” (which consisted of the four notes F-G-A-G), the only sequence where the judge noted a clear similarity between the two compositions, was already common in music, and had previously been used by Vangelis in a piece "Wake Up” that predated "City of Violets."

Are these two music similar enough so one of them should be copying the "idea" from the other one? Let me put them together and compare for yourselves.

【Vangelis, "Chariots of Fire"】




【 Stavros Logaridis, "City of Violets"】

Here is one comment below above video on Youtube. The position he pointded out are the similarities between them.

Billy Coskun 1 year ago (edited)

 OK guys listen up, expert is speaking. The intro, beats everything is same. Main melody is 99% same, the only thing is Stavros is constantly modulating, so the final note of the melody never returns home. I think that's what confused the judge. (Listen to the main melody between 1:06 and 1:32 and again at 2:10 and afterwards).  A music harmony or analyses professor would say exactly the same thing I wrote here. I think Stavros should sue again at the European Court.

My non-professional opinion is this. Although some identicals happened on certain phrases, I do not think Vangelis is copying. The whole feelings of the two music pieces to me are totally different.