A new slant on an old tune

Just this week I was listening to classical music on the radio as I often do. I learned something interesting about a piece I’ve heard numerous times, a piece which for some unknown reason evokes scenes from Dr. Zhivago for me!

Die Moldau is one of 6 symphonic poems written by the Czech composer Bedrich Smetana. You would recognize it immediately. This particular composition describes the course of the Vitava, one of Bohemia’s great rivers.



But here’s the interesting piece about Smetana’s most famous tune: “It is an adaptation of La Mantovana, a folk song of the Italian renaissance origin, which is also the basis for the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah. The tune also appears in major in an old folk Czech song "Kočka leze dírou" (Cat is crawling the hole").” The radio announcer had obviously looked it up on Wikipedia, since this is what he imparted to his listening audience.

We always think the great composers came up with those melodies on their own, when as in this case their ideas often come from something written long before and borrowed repeatedly. Why not put a good tune to reuse?

What other instances of this can you mention? Twinkle, twinkle, for example?